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Podcast Episode

Bats, boats, baths, and vasculitis: The story of ultrasound in GCA

Healio Rheuminations··28 April 2026·46 min

About this episode

In this week's episode we interview Kinanah Yaseen, MD, a rheumatologist from Cleveland Clinic's department of rheumatic and immunologic diseases about using ultrasound for giant cell arteritis. ·        Intro by Adam J. Brown, MD 0:12 ·        Dr. Brown's recent patient 1:34 ·        History of ultrasound and GCA 3:20 ·        Episode overview 7:05 ·        History of echolocation; how bats helped us invent ultrasound 8:00 ·        What is a bat bomb? 14:56 ·        How the Titanic helped us invent ultrasound 16:48 ·        Neurologists bring ultrasound to medicine 20:09 ·        OB/GYN is next to use ultrasound 23:11 ·        Ultrasound image quality becomes better 26:32 ·        Ultrasound use in giant cell arteritis 28:44 ·        Welcome Kinanah Yaseen, MD 33:49 ·        Using ultrasound in the clinic 34:25 ·        Can you walk us through an ultrasound of the axillary and vertebral arteries? 37:16 ·        Can you tell us why we stopped looking for sites to biopsy by finding narrowing of the vessels?  38:19 ·        Tell us about the halo sign 39:10 ·        How do you validate your ultrasound skills? 40:20 ·        If we start a patient on steroids, how useful is an ultrasound? 42:35 ·        Episode summary 44:20 ·        Thank you for listening 45:57 We'd love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. Brown at rheuminationspodcast@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @HRheuminations @AdamJBrownMD @HealioRheum. Kinanah Yaseen, MD, is a is a staff member of Cleveland Clinic's department of rheumatic and immunologic diseases. References: Friedman, G, et al.Isr J Med Sci. 1988 Kaproth-Joslin K A, et al. Radiographics. 2015 ;doi:10.1148/rg.2015140300 Puéchal X, et al. Lancet. 1995;doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(95)92626-7 Schmidt W A, et al. Lancet. 1995;doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(95)93005-1 Sigel B. Ultrasound Med Biol. 1998;doi:10.1016/s0301-5629(97)00264-0 Editor's Note: This has been updated to include references.