This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (3)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor.—In their Contempo article, Drs Gordon and Levin¹ published data for the target artery length for temporal artery biopsy specimens. I assume that they are recommending that a surgeon obtain a temporal artery segment that is at least 20 mm in length in situ. Smooth muscle retraction followed by formalin fixation may shorten such a surgical specimen. Do the authors have data on the degree of shrinkage in a processed temporal artery biopsy? (Most pathologists assume that formalin fixation that will cause a 10% reduction in the length of a nonbony structure, but documentation is hard to come by.) Alternatively, if a 2-cm-long portion of formalin-fixed artery is recommended, what is the recommended artery length that should be obtained? Without clarification, I fear that some surgeons will be called to task because of a lack of understanding of tissue-processing artifacts.

Alan Caroe, MD
York Hospital
York, Pa

1. Gordon LK, Levin LA. Visual loss in giant cell arteritis. JAMA. 1998;280:385-386. FREE FULL TEXT

. . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLE

Visual Loss in Giant Cell Arteritis
Lynn K. Gordon and Leonard A. Levin
JAMA. 1998;280(4):385-386.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Cost Effectiveness of Sunitinib
Trippoli and Messori
JCO 2008;26:5829-5829.
FULL TEXT  

Shrinkage: Fact or Fiction?
Danesh-Meyer et al.
Arch Ophthalmol 2001;119:1217-1217.
FULL TEXT  

Problems in Pharmacoeconomic Analyses
Stafford et al.
JAMA 2000;284:1922-1924.
FULL TEXT  

Survival Gain in Cost-Effectiveness Studies
Trippoli et al.
JCO 2000;18:3318-3318.
FULL TEXT  

Post Hoc Economic Analysis of Temozolomide Versus Dacarbazine in the Treatment of Advanced Metastatic Melanoma
Hillner et al.
JCO 2000;18:1474-1480.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT