BACKGROUND Diagnosis of giant cell arteritis (GCA) is based on criteria of the American College of Rheumatology. However, not all GCA patients meet these criteria and treatment may be delayed in individual patients, leading to an increased risk of complications. METHODS In an observational study, we investigated acute phase response markers in GCA and non-GCA patients matched for erythrocyte ...

OBJECTIVE Characterize patients with negative temporal artery biopsies in regard to their eventual diagnoses, and to find features that would differentiate biopsy-negative GCA from non-GCA patients. METHODS 58 patients with negative biopsies were included. Patients' data and final diagnoses were obtained from medical records. Biopsy-negative GCA was diagnosed when the American College of Rheu...

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is considered to be a T cell-dependent disease. Autoantibodies have not consistently been found in GCA. The exception is antiphospholipid antibodies (APLA), which were found in 30-80% of GCA cases. Recently, efforts have been made to seek autoantibodies in GCA using newer methods of detection: serological identification of antigens by recombinant cDNA expression cloni...

OBJECTIVES Giant cell arteritis (GCA) and polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) are common and frequently overlapping diseases. In this manuscript similarities and differences between these conditions have been assessed. METHODS A retrospective review of the literature was conducted. Reports emphasizing features in common and possible differences are reviewed. RESULTS GCA and PMR are characterized b...

OBJECTIVE Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a chronic form of vasculitis which predominantly affects women over 50 years of age. The aim of this study was to analyse the presence of estrogen receptor alpha (ER) in the temporal arteries of patients with GCA. METHODS Inflamed temporal artery biopsies from 43 GCA patients were stained with monoclonal antibodies to two different segments of the ER an...

OBJECTIVES Evidence of the association of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and giant cell arteritis (GCA) with the full range of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) is limited. We examined their relationship with the first clinical presentation of the 12 most common CVDs in an unselected population-based cohort of men and women. METHODS We analysed CArdiovascular disease research using LInked Bespoke ...

Purpose Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common systemic vasculitis in the elderly and can cause irreversible blindness and aortitis. Varicella zoster (VZ), which is potentially preventable by vaccination, has been proposed as a possible immune trigger for GCA, but this is controversial. The incidence of GCA varies widely by country. If VZ virus contributes to the immunopathogenesis of GC...