Acute myeloid leukemia associated with necrotizing temporal arteritis

The clinical presentation of new onset headache, temporal artery tenderness, and elevated inflammatory markers is classical for giant cell arteritis (GCA). We describe a patient who presented with clinical features of GCA, but was found to have isolated necrotizing arteritis of the temporal artery in the setting of acute myeloid leukemia. This report emphasizes that if the temporal artery histology is not classical for GCA, or if the response to treatment is incomplete, further evaluation for systemic or paraneoplastic vasculitis should be considered.