[Angiographic diagnosis in giant cell arteritis of the arm arteries].

Three women of 66, 68 and 69 years of age presented with chronic arm claudication caused by giant cell arteritic stenoses and occlusions of their arm arteries. In the early stage of the disease, arteriography revealed smooth or undulatory long-segment narrowings. Subsequently, spindle-shaped filiform stenoses developed. They were unilateral in one patient, bilateral-symmetric in another and like a string of beads in the third. In the end, untreated arteritis resulted in smoothly tapered occlusions of the diseased vessels. In patients with symptoms and signs suggestive of giant cell arteritis, typical arteriographic findings may confirm the diagnosis even if histopathological proof is lacking.