BMJ · 1969 · 14 citations · 0 references
Veterinary MedicineCardiologyPathologyAutoimmunityInflammationRheumatologyAutoimmune DiseasesAutoimmune VasculitisCardiovascular DiseaseVascular PathologyGiant Cell LesionsPrednisone UseTemporal Arteritis
JORA 53 intense loneliness, having never been without a dog before.I am now hopeful she may now change her mind, at least to* the extent of a Siamese cat, and that this may eventually permit corticosteroids to be tailed-off without relapse of her arteritis in one of its more unpleasant guises.This happened to a patient from the same practice only a few months back who stopped taking her prednisone, prescribed for her temporal arteritis, because the doctor emigrated.Her cardiac infarction, at first thought unremarkable, was followed by pericarditis and mental confusion, both of which, like her previous temporal arteritis, responded at once to prednisone.It seems likely that further studies on deprivation by death or other means of close relatives or pets will show significant results, not only-in mortality in the aged from cardiac infarction but also in morbidity and mortality from the other protean manifesta- tions of giant cell arteritis.-Iam, etc.,