Heart & vascular pathology
Inflammatory disease
Giant cell arteritis
Author: Hind Warzecha, M.D.
Last author update: 1 January 2009
Last staff update: 22 December 2021
Copyright: 2002-2023, PathologyOutlines.com, Inc.
PubMed Search: Giant cell arteritis [title] breast
Table of Contents
Definition / general | Epidemiology | Clinical features | Case reports | Treatment | Microscopic (histologic) description | Microscopic (histologic) images | Differential diagnosisCite this page: Warzecha H. Giant cell arteritis. PathologyOutlines.com website. https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/topic/heartgiantcellarteritis.html. Accessed September 26th, 2023.
Definition / general
- Vascular disorder that may have systemic manifestations but no temporal artery involvement (Hum Path 1987;18:1186)
Epidemiology
- Usually postmenopausal women with firm mass that mimics carcinoma
Clinical features
- Nodules or pain in the breast, with or without tenderness
- Associated with significant constitutional symptoms that resemble polymyalgia rheumatica (Breast Cancer 2010;17:225)
Case reports
- 56 year old woman with giant cell arteritis of the breast (Med Princ Pract 2004;13:234)
- 74 year old woman with giant cell arteritis of the breast and breast cancer (Onkologie 2008;31:685)
- Giant cell arteritis presenting as a breast lesion (Am J Med Sci 2008;335:489)
Treatment
- Possibly prednisone therapy
Microscopic (histologic) description
- Involvement of small and medium sized arteries with transmural and perivascular infiltrate of lymphocytes, histiocytes and giant cells
- Elastic stain shows fragmentation of elastic fibers in vessel wall
Microscopic (histologic) images
Contributed by Mark R. Wick, M.D.
Various images
Elastic stain
AFIP images
Intramammary arterial lumen
is mostly obliterated by
subintimal and mural inflammation,
including giant cells (arrows)
Transmural necrotizing inflammation
of medium sized mammary vessels,
with elastic stain showing partial
destruction of elastic layer
Differential diagnosis
- Polyarteritis nodosa: transmural necrotizing vasculitis without giant cells; often prominent eosinophils, fibrinoid necrosis
- Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's): acute and chronic inflammation of breast parenchyma and fat; may resemble an abscess; vessels in necrotic areas and in surrounding breast exhibit fibrinoid necrosis; granulomatous foci in blood vessels and at peripheral of breast infarcts
