The history of giant cell arteritis: Infections, injections and the man who couldn't wear a hat

What does a goiter and syphilis have in common with the first descriptions of giant cell arteritis? Join us as we dive into the history of the most common type of vasculitis!

• Intro 0:13
• GCA at ACR 2025 00:30
• How Brown has approached framing this episode 1:01
• A primer leading us to GCA 3:15
• Let's get to the story 4:02
• The man who couldn't wear a hat 4:57
• Dr. Bayard Horton's 7:40
• A tangent on cluster headaches 8:27
• Let's get back to GCA 13:16
• The first temporal artery biopsy 14:28
• Vision loss and other puzzle pieces of GCA 16:27
• What about jaw claudication? 21:15
• Could GCA be transmissible? Injecting ground temporal arteries into healthy volunteers 24:13
• Oxygen? Histamines? Adrenal cortical extract? Looking for GCA treatments 26:55
• Steroids and GCA 28:40
• A quote from the 1959 Mayo Clinic Board of Governors 32:24
• Extracranial involvement in GCA 33:24
• When did we recognize aorta involvement? Syphilis enters the picture 35:08
• A recap of the history of GCA 41:25
• Thanks for listening 42:19

We'd love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. Brown at rheuminationspodcast@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @HRheuminations @AdamJBrownMD @HealioRheum.

References:

Boes CJ, Cephalalgia. 2007;doi:10.1111/j.1468-2982.2007.01238.x

Cummer CL, et al. JAMA. 1912;doi:10.1001/jama.1912.04270080101004

Horton BT, Proc Cent SOC Clin Res. 1946

Sproul EE, et al. Am J Pathol. 1937;PMID: 19970328

Disclosures: Brown reports no relevant financial disclosures.