[Temporal arteritis, sometimes oral symptoms are the first manifestation]

Sometimes it is difficult to diagnose temporal arteritis because the complaints may vary, change in intensity and are not always characteristic. The condition is a cranial form of giant-cell arteritis affecting large and medium-sized arteries. The first manifestation of temporal arteritis can be a sore tongue that does not manifest any abnormalities during a clinical investigation. In a later stage patients sometimes develop ulceration or necrosis of a part of one side of the tongue. Other symptoms can be a recently developed headache, jaw claudication and acute loss of vision. To diagnose temporal arteritis, histological investigation of a biopsy of the temporal artery is carried out. The treatment consists of long-term use of corticosteroids. A patient in your practice with inexplicable pain on one side of the tongue, without clinical abnormalities, or an ulceration of the tongue without an immediately apparent cause may have temporal arteritis.