Giant cell arteritis presenting with a tongue lesion—diagnostic dilemma

An 83-year-old woman presented to our hospital with a two-month long history of progressive weight loss, weakness and recent odynophagia. Her daughter first noticed her tongue with white plaques about two weeks prior to our admission (Figure 1). She was admitted to another hospital, treated for thrush and discharged. Her tongue surface then developed a whitish exudate over the tip (Figure 2) and became more painful. Most of the history was obtained by the daughter because the patient had severe dysarthria from the tongue lesions.