Metastasis in the Temporal Bone Mimicking Temporal Arteritis

Abstract

This report describes a 72-year-old female patient with a previous history of cured breast cancer who presented with acute monocular visual disturbances, intense unilateral headache, painful temporal artery palpation, high erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and pain and weakness of the femoral muscles. These symptoms and signs were suggestive of temporal arteritis, but the finding of the temporal artery biopsy was negative, and the patient did not respond to corticosteroid treatment. Later, whole body bone scintigraphy revealed dissemination of malignancy throughout her skeleton including the skull. To our knowledge, this is the first report to show that a metastasis in the temporal bone can closely mimic temporal arteritis.