[Clinical and epidemiological aspects of Horton disease based on survey methods in ophthalmology or internal...

We conducted a retrospective study of 29 consecutive cases of temporal arteritis, all with definite histological diagnostic criteria. The epidemiological aspects of the main clinical and biological features were compared according to their mode of recruitment, the patients being hospitalized either in an ophthalmological unit (n = 15), or in an Internal Medicine unit (n = 14). The level of fever and of sedimentation rate were significantly less in the ophthalmological group (respectively p < 0.001 and p < 0.02), a third of which is represented by the purely ophthalmological manifestation called "occult temporal arteritis". Among the ophthalmological manifestations, despite the fact that the recruitment bias prevented any strict epidemiological comparison, we were surprised to find no significant difference between the two groups concerning the frequency of transient ophthalmological manifestations, which confirmed in half the patients their reputation of forerunners of irreversible lesions. Thus, the presentation of temporal arteritis differs according to its ophthalmological or Internal Medicine recruitment. We were unable to determine a precise chronology difference in the principal manifestations between these two groups. The severity of the ocular manifestations justifies looking for temporal arteritis in all cases of transient ophthalmological manifestations, even if clinically totally isolated.