Giant cell arteritis presenting as cluster headache

Abstract

New onset of headache in an elderly patient is a common presenting symptom of giant cell arteritis. Headache is usually generalized, throbbing, and continuous, with focally worse pain in the temporal or, less often, in the occipital regions.1 We report a patient with a histopathologically confirmed giant cell arteritis whose clinical manifestations mimicked those of cluster headache. Case report. A 74-year-old man without previous personal or familial history of headache was evaluated in our hospital because of a 2-month history that consisted initially of one to two attacks per day and progressed to three to four attacks per day, of severe, boring pain in the left supraorbital area that lasted 15 to 20 minutes. The pain episodes …