Bats, boats, baths, and vasculitis: The story of ultrasound in GCA

In this week's episode we interview Kinanah Yaseen, MD, a rheumatologist from Cleveland Clinic's department of rheumatic and immunologic diseases about using ultrasound for giant cell arteritis.

· Intro by Adam J. Brown, MD 0:12

· Dr. Brown's recent patient 1:34

· History of ultrasound and GCA 3:20

· Episode overview 7:05

· History of echolocation; how bats helped us invent ultrasound 8:00

· What is a bat bomb? 14:56

· How the Titanic helped us invent ultrasound 16:48

· Neurologists bring ultrasound to medicine 20:09

· OB/GYN is next to use ultrasound 23:11

· Ultrasound image quality becomes better 26:32

· Ultrasound use in giant cell arteritis 28:44

· Welcome Kinanah Yaseen, MD 33:49

· Using ultrasound in the clinic 34:25

· Can you walk us through an ultrasound of the axillary and vertebral arteries? 37:16

· Can you tell us why we stopped looking for sites to biopsy by finding narrowing of the vessels? 38:19

· Tell us about the halo sign 39:10

· How do you validate your ultrasound skills? 40:20

· If we start a patient on steroids, how useful is an ultrasound? 42:35

· Episode summary 44:20

· Thank you for listening 45:57

We'd love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. Brown at [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter @HRheuminations @AdamJBrownMD @HealioRheum.

Kinanah Yaseen, MD, is a is a staff member of Cleveland Clinic's department of rheumatic and immunologic diseases.

References:

Friedman, G, et al.Isr J Med Sci. 1988

Kaproth-Joslin K A, et al. Radiographics. 2015 ;doi:10.1148/rg.2015140300

Puéchal X, et al. Lancet. 1995;doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(95)92626-7

Schmidt W A, et al. Lancet. 1995;doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(95)93005-1

Sigel B. Ultrasound Med Biol. 1998;doi:10.1016/s0301-5629(97)00264-0

Editor's Note: This has been updated to include references.