New-onset giant cell arteritis with lower ESR and CRP level carries a similar ischemic risk to other forms of the disease but has an excellent late prognosis : a case-control study

© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature..

INTRODUCTION: Biopsy-proven giant cell arteritis (GCA) occasionally presents without acute-phase reaction. In this setting, GCA may be initially overlooked and glucocorticoid treatment unduly delayed, potentially increasing ischemic risk.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: From an inception cohort of patients with newly diagnosed, biopsy-verified GCA, we retrieved all cases without elevation of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) level before starting glucocorticoid treatment. We compared the baseline features and outcomes of these patients and two additional patients recruited after GCA diagnosis with those of 42 randomly selected patients with high baseline ESR and CRP.

RESULTS: Of 396 patients, 14 (3.5%) had lower baseline values of both ESR and CRP. Lower baseline ESR and CRP were associated with fewer American College of Rheumatology criteria met (p < 0.001, 95% CI - 1.1; - 0.9), and less jaw claudication (p = 0.06, 95% CI 0.8; 44.9), but similar rates of permanent blindness (p = 1.0). Patients with lower ESR and CRP also showed obvious differences regarding mean blood cell counts and mean hemoglobin level, but also less anti-cardiolipin antibody positivity (p = 0.04, 95% CI 0.8; ∞) and hepatic cholestasis (p = 0.03, 95% CI 1.0; 422). Patients with lower ESR and CRP had fewer GCA relapses (p = 0.03, 95% CI - 1.1; - 0.1), fewer glucocorticoid-induced complications (p = 0.01, 95% CI - 2.0; - 0.1), and successfully stopped glucocorticoids sooner than the other patients (18.3 months vs 34 months in average, p = 0.02, 95% CI - 27;- 0.9).

CONCLUSION: Biopsy-proven GCA presenting with lower ESR and CRP is not an exceptional occurrence. It is clinically less typical but carries similar ischemic risk to other forms of the disease. Conversely, the late GCA prognosis of these patients is excellent.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2023

Erschienen:

2023

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:43

Enthalten in:

Rheumatology international - 43(2023), 7 vom: 06. Juli, Seite 1323-1331

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Liozon, Eric [VerfasserIn]
Parreau, Simon [VerfasserIn]
Dumonteil, Stéphanie [VerfasserIn]
Gondran, Guillaume [VerfasserIn]
Bezanahary, Holy [VerfasserIn]
Ly, Kim-Heang [VerfasserIn]
Fauchais, Anne Laure [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

9007-41-4
C-Reactive Protein
C-reactive protein
Case control study
Erythrocyte sedimentation rate
Giant cell arteritis
Glucocorticoids
Journal Article

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 17.05.2023

Date Revised 17.05.2023

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1007/s00296-023-05299-1

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM355292890