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Biomedical subjects

L A Healey

Publications and source records attributed to L A Healey.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Presentation of occult giant cell arteritis.

Temporal headache, blindness, and polymyalgia rheumatica are well-recognized manifestions of giant cell arteritis. However, the disease may present in less evident fashion as shown by 30 of 74 patients with biopsy-proven giant cell arteritis whose predominant complaint was not one ot these cardinal symptoms. For this group of 30, the main problem was fever in 12 patients, anorexia, weight loss, and elevated serum alkaline phosphatase level suggesting an occult malignancy in 7, and unexplained anemia in 3. Four patients had a neurologic syndrome; 2 had diplopia and 2 acute weakness of one arm. Claudication was the chief complaint of 4 patients, involving the leg in 1, the arm in 1, and the jaw in 2. All patients responded well to steroid therapy.

Aged↗

Cerebral embolism in Libman-Sacks endocarditis.

Left homonymous hemianopia, hemiparesis, left-body clonic seizures, and progressive deterioration of consciousness complicated the clinical course of a 57-year-old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Autopsy documented the presence of multiple brain infarcts and cerebral arterial emboli that originated from the verrucae of Libman-Sacks endocarditis. Clinicians and pathologists should consider this unusual vascular mechanism of cerebral injury in patients with SLE who develop strokes.

Brain↗