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Case Reports: Unusual presentation of more common disease/injury
Tongue necrosis secondary to giant cell arteritis
  1. Juan Cantón De Seoane1,
  2. Luis Alberto Gutiérrez Guédez2,
  3. Ana Belén Rodríguez Cambrón3 and
  4. Fernando Burgos4
  1. 1Internal Medicine, Hospital Universitario de Toledo, Toledo, Spain
  2. 2Cardiology, Gävle sjukhus, Gavle, Sweden
  3. 3Reumatology, Severo Ochoa University Hospital, Leganes, Spain
  4. 4Patology, Severo Ochoa University Hospital, Leganes, Spain
  1. Correspondence to Dr Juan Cantón De Seoane; cantonseoane{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Tongue necrosis is a rare clinical finding because of its rich vascularisation. Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most frequent cause of it, and when present, it is usually one side affected. We describe a patient with several months of constitutional syndrome; during that period, she develops headache followed by tongue necrosis, which lead to clinical suspicion of GCA, later confirmed by a temporal artery biopsy. Before the biopsy, she was treated with corticosteroids. We discuss this illness and tongue necrosis as a rare manifestation to consider.

  • Vasculitis
  • Mouth
  • Immunology

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2023-254888

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors JCDS and LAGG were the clinicians who followed the case and got the diagnosis. ABRC helped during the treatment and follow-up of the patient. FB gave the pathological anatomy images.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Case reports provide a valuable learning resource for the scientific community and can indicate areas of interest for future research. They should not be used in isolation to guide treatment choices or public health policy.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.