Giant cells

[missmylefteye]

What are the giant cells of GCA? I think of GCA as inflamed arteries ? but i realized i dont really know what it is. Last week i had the temporal artery biopsy, they took 2cm of my artery & tied it off. So are they looking for some kind of cell, or for inflammation of artery walls or other? thx, mmle

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Both - the inflammation takes the form of large cells -hence the name, although giant cells may be found in other things too. But there are other forms of inflammation besides the giant cells which also show up as changes in the structure of the artery walls. The giant cells have several nuclei - also unusual.

youtube.com/watch?v=UrGsVfL...(Not working as expected?)

This is a video where the narrator points out the changes in the artery walls. It's easier to understand than most of the stuff I could find.

[missmylefteye in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks, this was a good presentation! i have a much better sense of what gca is now & what they are looking for in the biopsy.

[raymck in reply to missmylefteye]

Hi missmylefteye! I miss mine too, after I was told my biopsy was positive and that it was definitely GCA caused the blockage of blood supply to the optic nerve endings. They said it only takes a day or two for these to die and sight loss follows. In my case it was Xmas and New Year so a bad time! Ah well, now we live with the consequences and post -steroid effects. Good luck with coping on one eye!

[Joyful13 in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks PMRpro. I have never seen giant cells explained so well, or seem them visually. Excellent video. 😍

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Hi,

With respect to the narrator don't know that I share his enthusiasm in his last sentence regarding 'it being the nicest giant cell we've seen'.

Although I could print it off, enlarge it (excuse the pun) and pass it off as modern art! "Here's one I made earlier!"

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to DorsetLady]

The company my OH works with in Innsbruck has an art gallery. There is a whole series of artwork done by Odra Noel, who describes it as scientific art, spread round the building. There are also sculptures from a more local artist which are accompanied by a book that draws parallels between the sculptures and science.

odranoel.eu/

Hope you enjoy it.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to PMRpro]

Yes - very good. Perhaps I should look at my giant cells in a different light. In some ways they are incredibly beautiful albeit deadly. But such is life I suppose.

[Joyful13 in reply to PMRpro]

Very interesting perspective. Out of something bad comes something good.......

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Joyful13]

The Odra Noel stuff is predominantly using mitochondria taken from very high resolution microscope images. I have a sneaking suspicion that it is something wrong with our mitochondria that leads to PMR and GCA - they are the power houses of the cells and essential to life.

[Joyful13 in reply to PMRpro]

PMRpro,

I would not be surprised that you are right. Perhaps some day we will know. The cell is very fascinating. These scientific art pictures brought me back to my college days of studying Histology in nursing school. If the slides had been as colorful as these pictures, I may have had an easier time with all the identification. Histology is truly a fascinating subject. I would not mind having a king the course again, and having plenty of time to study this subject by itself.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Joyful13]

I have to admit - it was my favourite lab course as a junior technologist and I was fortunate enough to not have to do it at evening classes, I was sent to work there for a couple of weeks! A long time ago and it was a gloriously MESSY job with all the stains...

[missmylefteye in reply to PMRpro]

Ah, like finger painting, but with real sources of data & answers about people...sounds rewarding, & yes,messy.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to missmylefteye]

Except with finger painting you can clean yourself up afterwards! Some histology stains are a bit PERMANENT ...

[missmylefteye in reply to PMRpro]

I bet!

[missmylefteye]

My temporal artery biopsy came back negative. I'm still sick all the time, still on 55mg of pred, still no rheumatologist. i'm exhausted. whatever i have, i wish it would give up some hard data already.