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An Immunohistopathologic Study to Profile the Folate Receptor Beta Macrophage and Vascular Immune Microenvironment in Giant Cell Arteritis
Published on: February 8, 2019
Clinical practice in giant cell arteritis based on a survey of specialists
M A González-Gay1, N Ortego-Centeno2, L Ercole3
1Servicio de Reumatología y Grupo de Investigación sobre la Epidemiología, Genética y Aterosclerosis en Enfermedades Inflamatorias Sistémicas, Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla, Instituto de Investigación Marqués de Valdecilla (IDIVAL), Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain; Cardiovascular Pathophysiology and Genomics Research Unit, School of Physiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Background:
The purpose of this study was to learn about the clinical practice of specialists who care for patients with giant cell arteritis, to verify whether they follow the diagnosis and treatment recommendations for this disease, and to identify areas for improvement.
Methods:
A cross-sectional survey on clinical practice in 2019. The survey was completed by 167 physicians (64% rheumatologists, 27% internal medicine specialists, and 9% other specialists) who attended a course on updating giant cell arteritis treatment. We compared the clinical practice collected in the study with the latest recommendations approved by the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR).
Results:
The physicians surveyed cared for a median of 10 patients (interquartile range 6-30) with giant cell arteritis during their practice. As a diagnostic method, respondents used temporal artery biopsy (84%), temporal artery ultrasound (61%) or other imaging techniques (37%). As first-line therapy, respondents used high-dose glucocorticoids (at least 40 mg of prednisone, or equivalent, per day) (84%), glucocorticoids with methotrexate (7%) and glucocorticoids with tocilizumab (5%). The most frequent drugs used for relapse were methotrexate (37%) and tocilizumab (58%).
Conclusion:
Our results indicate that the medical specialists surveyed follow the recent EULAR recommendations for giant cell arteritis diagnosis and therapy.
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