Tongue necrosis secondary to giant cell arteritis

Abstract

Tongue necrosis is a rare clinical finding because of its rich vascularisation. Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most frequent cause of it, and when present, it is usually one side affected. We describe a patient with several months of constitutional syndrome; during that period, she develops headache followed by tongue necrosis, which lead to clinical suspicion of GCA, later confirmed by a temporal artery biopsy. Before the biopsy, she was treated with corticosteroids. We discuss this illness and tongue necrosis as a rare manifestation to consider.

Keywords: Immunology; Mouth; Vasculitis.