CaseReport
Combined Left Central Retinal Artery Occlusion and Bilateral
Anterior Ischemic Optic Neuritis: A Rare Presentation of Giant
Cell Arteritis
Anne D. D. Joseph ,
1
Jebananthy Anandaselvam Pradeepan ,
1
Thirunavukarasu Kumanan ,
1
and Muthusamy Malaravan
2
1
University Medical Unit, Teaching Hospital Jaffna, Jaffna, Sri Lanka
2
Department of Ophthalmology, Teaching Hospital Jaffna, Jaffna, Sri Lanka
Correspondence should be addressed to Anne D. D. Joseph; anne.rajendrenjoseph@yahoo.com
Received 30 April 2019; Revised 11 August 2019; Accepted 4 September 2019; Published 22 September 2019
Academic Editor: Constantine Saadeh
Copyright © 2019 Anne D. D. Joseph et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is
properly cited.
Giant cell arteritis, a large vessel vasculitis is characterized by headache, visual impairment, constitutional symptoms, and
increased inflammatory markers. Visual involvement in giant cell arteritis ranges from amaurosis fugax to permanent visual loss,
and extensive bilateral visual impairment is a rare presentation. We hereby report a case of combined left central retinal artery
occlusion and bilateral anterior ischemic optic neuritis in a patient who poorly responded to standard corticosteroid therapy.
1. Introduction
Giant cell arteritis (GCA), also known as temporal arteritis, is the
most common systemic vasculitides in older adult populations
[1, 2]. It is a disease often observed in the age group of more than
50years with the peak incidence in the seventh decade. Many of
the symptoms and signs of the GCA are due to the involvement
of the cranial branches of arteries that originate from the arch of
the aorta, but the vascular involvement can be widespread.
e most common symptom of GCA is a new onset
headache, usually around the temporal region. Abrupt onset of
visual disturbances, in particular transient monocular visual
loss, jaw claudication, unexplained fever, fatigue, anemia, or
other constitutional symptoms and signs with high erythrocyte
sedimentation rate (ESR) and/or high serum C-reactive protein
(CRP) are the common observations at presentation. Simul-
taneous onset of bilateral visual loss is an unusual clinical entity.
2. Case Presentation
A 75-year-old lady, known patient with optimally con-
trolled hypertension with amlodipine monotherapy for
5 years duration, presented with sudden painless onset of
visual blurring involving the left eye for 3 days duration
which was progressed to the level of perception of light
(Pl) on the same side. Approximately 24 hours later, she
developed gradual blurring of vision in the right eye too.
Shehadleft-sidedintermittentjawpainforaweekpriorto
the onset of visual symptoms; however, she did not have a
history of fever, frontotemporal headache, malaise, or
constitutional symptoms. Past ophthalmological history
included bilateral uncomplicated cataract extraction two
years prior to the current presentation, and her visual
acuity was 6/12 in the left eye and 6/12 in the right eye
prior to the admission.
On examination, she was oriented and alert with the
Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of 15 out of 15, was afebrile, and
had tenderness over the left temporal region, but no thickening
of the temporal artery was noted. Ophthalmic examination
showed her visual acuity in the left eye Pl; in right eye, it was 1/
10 with complete ocular motility. Other system examinations
including the neurological examination were unremarkable.
Detailed examination of the eyes by the ophthalmology
team revealed both pseudophakic eyes with normal intraocular
Hindawi
Case Reports in Rheumatology
Volume 2019, Article ID 3236821, 3 pages
https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3236821