Paroxysmal Hemicrania as the Clinical Presentation of Giant Cell Arteritis

Head pain is the most common complaint in patients with giant cell arteritis but the headache has no distinct diagnostic features. There have been no published reports of giant cell arteritis presenting as a trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia. We describe a patient who developed a new onset headache in her fifties, which fit the diagnostic criteria for paroxysmal hemicrania and was completely responsive to corticosteroids. Removal of the steroid therapy brought a reemergence of her headaches. Giant cell arteritis should be considered in the evaluation of secondary causes of paroxysmal hemicrania; in addition giant cell arteritis needs to be ruled out in patients who are over the age of 50 years with a new onset trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia.