Association between strong inflammatory response and low risk of developing visual loss and other cranial ischemic complications in giant cell (temporal) arteritis
✍ Scribed by Maria C. Cid; Carme Font; Joaquim Oristrell; Alejandro de la Sierra; Blanca Coll-Vinent; Alfons López-Soto; Jaume Vilaseca; Alvaro Urbano-Márquez; Josep M. Grau
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 702 KB
- Volume
- 41
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0004-3591
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Objective. To identify clinical and biochemical parameters that have good predictive value for identifying giant cell (temporal) arteritis (GCA) patients who are at high or low risk of developing cranial ischemic events.
Methods. In this multicenter study, records of patients at 3 university hospitals in Barcelona were reviewed retrospectively. Two hundred consecutive patients with biopsy-proven GCA were studied.
Results. Thirty-two patients developed irreversible cranial ischemic complications. The duration of clinical symptoms before diagnosis was similar in patients with and those without ischemic events. Patients with ischemic complications less frequently had fever (18.8% versus 56.9%) and weight loss (21.9% versus 62%) and more frequently had amaurosis fugax (32.3% versus 6%) and transient diplopia (15.6% versus 3.6%). Patients with ischemic events had lower erythrocyte sedimentation rates (ESR) (82.7 mm/hour versus 104.4 mm/hour) and higher concentrations of hemoglobin (12.2 gm/dl versus 10.9 gm/dl) and albumin (37.4 gm/ liter versus 32.7 gm/liter). Clinical inflammatory status and biologic inflammatory status were defined empiri-