Rare Infective Radial Artery Arteritis After Catheterisation

Abstract

A 64 year old patient presented with wrist pain and fever after radial artery (RA) puncture for coronary angiography. RA ultrasound was normal. One month later, pain and fever persisted; ultrasound imaging (A) and computed tomography angiography (B) revealed an infective radial arteritis with seven staged aneurysms from 6.5 to 10.0 mm in size (asterisks), which required broad spectrum antibiotics (intravenous administration for three days, oral for three weeks). Serial blood cultures did not allow identification of the causal microorganism. Eight months later, the patient was afebrile and the aneurysms had partly regressed while the distal radial artery was occluded without ischaemic symptoms.Image 1