Widespread thrombosis and necrotizing arteritis of the liver in a 69-year-old woman with symptoms simulating those of temporal arteritis

Autopsy findings of widespread thrombosis and necrotizing arteritis of the liver in a 69-year-old woman who had clinical symptoms suggesting those of temporal (giant cell) arteritis were presented. The lesion of the temporal artery was not of temporal arteritis but of thrombosis, part of widespread thrombosis, which occurred in the small arteries having hypertensive arteriolopathy. This case also had an arteritis of the liver resembling polyarteritis nodosa (PN). The pathologic processes demonstrated in this case suggested that the temporal arteritis-like symptoms may be brought about by occlusion of the temporal artery. Temporal arteritis is a nonfatal and self-limited disease and little information has been obtained from autopsy material. Accordingly, it is necessary to collect autopsy cases of temporal arteritis to investigate this disease through observations of whole bodies. Recently we examined a case which appeared clinically having symptoms of temporal arteritis, but the autopsy revealed that the symptoms were not brought about by temporal arteritis but by thrombosis of the temporal artery. It is the purpose of this paper to present this case and to discuss some problems concerning genesis of symptoms of temporal arteritis.