Hubert de Boysson1, Eric Liozon2, Kim Heang Ly2, Anael Dumont3, Claire Delmas3, Achille Aouba4. 1. Department of Internal Medicine, Caen University Hospital; and University of Normandy, Caen, France. deboysson-h@chu-caen.fr. 2. Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Immunology, Limoges University Hospital, Limoges, France. 3. Department of Internal Medicine, Caen University Hospital, Caen, France. 4. Department of Internal Medicine, Caen University Hospital; and University of Normandy, Caen, France.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: To estimate the frequency of different clinical patterns in giant-cell arteritis (GCA) at onset. METHODS: All GCA patients consecutively followed-up in two referral centers for GCA with a biopsy-proven diagnosis and/or large-vessel vasculitis (LVV) demonstrated on imaging were analysed. RESULTS: We analysed the initial clinical presentation of 693 patients with a median age of 75 [48-94] years and including 486 (70%) women. We identified four different clinical patterns: isolated cranial GCA (in 80%), symptomatic LVV with or without associated cranial signs (9%), isolated fever or inflammatory response (9%), and isolated polymyalgia rheumatica with vasculitis (2%). A silent LVV was found in 110 (45%) out of the 247 patients without large-vessel symptoms who underwent imaging at GCA diagnosis. Symptomatic LVV patients were more frequently GC-dependent compared to other patterns (p=0.03) and showed the longest treatment duration (median: 37 [15-212] months versus <30 months for other clinical phenotypes; p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that 80% of GCA patients display a typical presentation, whereas the other 20% showed rarer presentations. Patients with symptomatic LVV required longer treatment duration.
OBJECTIVES: To estimate the frequency of different clinical patterns in giant-cell arteritis (GCA) at onset. METHODS: All GCA patients consecutively followed-up in two referral centers for GCA with a biopsy-proven diagnosis and/or large-vessel vasculitis (LVV) demonstrated on imaging were analysed. RESULTS: We analysed the initial clinical presentation of 693 patients with a median age of 75 [48-94] years and including 486 (70%) women. We identified four different clinical patterns: isolated cranial GCA (in 80%), symptomatic LVV with or without associated cranial signs (9%), isolated fever or inflammatory response (9%), and isolated polymyalgia rheumatica with vasculitis (2%). A silent LVV was found in 110 (45%) out of the 247 patients without large-vessel symptoms who underwent imaging at GCA diagnosis. Symptomatic LVV patients were more frequently GC-dependent compared to other patterns (p=0.03) and showed the longest treatment duration (median: 37 [15-212] months versus <30 months for other clinical phenotypes; p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that 80% of GCA patients display a typical presentation, whereas the other 20% showed rarer presentations. Patients with symptomatic LVV required longer treatment duration.
Authors: K Bates Gribbons; Cristina Ponte; Anthea Craven; Joanna C Robson; Ravi Suppiah; Raashid Luqmani; Richard Watts; Peter A Merkel; Peter C Grayson Journal: Arthritis Rheumatol Date: 2020-03-05 Impact factor: 15.483
Authors: Markus Kraemer; Jana Becker; Thorsten Alexander Bley; Andreas Steinbrecher; Jens Minnerup; Bernhard Hellmich Journal: Nervenarzt Date: 2021-11-03 Impact factor: 1.297