Diagnosing and managing polymyalgia rheumatica and temporal arteritis

[...]clinicians should be aware that the sensitivity of biopsy will depend on quality, particularly biopsy length, and preparation for histological examination; a longer biopsy sample with closely spaced sections is likely to have a higher sensitivity than a short one with widely spaced sections. [...]occasionally the clinical suspicion of giant cell arteritis is so strong that the patient is treated with steroids whatever the biopsy result.