• Temporal artery biopsy is usually performed for the detection of (giant cell) temporal arthritis.
• Due to skip feature of temporal arthritis, multiple cross sections and the multiple additional levels should be examined.
• Temporal arthritis is considered a medical emergency.  Tissue processing should be expedited and histological diagnosis of temporal arthritis should be immediately conveyed to the clinician.

The specimen should be submitted as 0.5 to 1 cm segment before tissue processing.  The segment will be further sectioned into 0.1 - 0.2 cm cross sections before being embedded in the histology lab. Multiple levels of tissue section should be requested per lab's protocol.

Internal use only

Received without fixative/in formalin, labeled _____ and "_____" is a 2.5-cm segment of vessel with smooth outer contour and a 0.2 cm uniform diameter.  A pinpoint lumen is noted on the cross section.  The specimen is sectioned into 0.5-cm short segment and entirely submitted in #__. Further cross-sectioning will be performed during embedding.

1 block, 1 H&E,  levels