Complications of corticosteroid therapy in presumptive temporal arteritis

Two elderly patients presented with symptoms suggestive of occult temporal arteritis. Both were treated with high doses of corticosteroids although subsequent biopsies of the arteries did not show evidence of arteritis. After 5 months of corticosteroid therapy, the first patient died of Gram-negative bacterial pneumonia and cystitis and disseminated intravascular coagulation. The second patient, six days after the biopsy, died of pneumococcal meningitis which had presumably spread from a focus about the left optic nerve. In the first patient, necropsy studies showed that the loss of vision appeared to be due to arteriosclerosis of the nutrient vessels of the optic nerve while in the second patient, the visual symptoms appeared to be due to a localized optic perineuritis. Corticosteroid therapy in elderly patients carries a high morbidity, as is illustrated by the first case and may mask unsuspected underlying disease processes, as presumably occurred in the second. We discuss the importance of obtaining a biopsy diagnostic of temporal arteritis in order to justify the continuation of corticosteroid therapy and the significance of a negative biopsy.