Can a Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) Risk Stratification Score Be Helpful in Clinical Practice?

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common type of large vessel vasculitis. The diagnosis of GCA is often challenging and there is a difficult balance of over- and underinvestigation. There have been several proposed scoring systems to help clinicians risk stratify patients who may present with suspected GCA.

A retrospective cohort study was performed using electronic medical records of patients referred for a temporal artery biopsy (TAB) and temporal artery ultrasound scan (USS) for suspected GCA. All TABs performed at the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust between June 2014 and June 2018 and all USS procedures performed between January 2015 and January 2019 were analysed. Patients who undergo a USS for suspected GCA at our centre routinely have scanned bilateral temporal and axillary arteries. Patients were excluded if they already had a previous diagnosis of GCA (and the clinical question was suspected flare), or if there was insufficient information available.

The total number of patients who underwent a confirmatory diagnostic test (either TAB or USS) for suspected GCA was 187. Thirteen of these patients met the exclusion criteria, the remaining 174 patients were included for analysis. A total of 126 of 174 patients underwent a TAB and 63 of 174 had a USS performed; 15 of 174 who had both these were included in the USS cohort because for all these patients, the ultrasound was the first diagnostic test performed. Our results appear to closely mirror the original multi-centre results with regard to the prediction of biopsy-positive GCA, with the centiles closely following those in the inception cohort. Also, 0% of the 'low' risk probability biopsy cohort were misclassified; none had a positive biopsy. However, 8% of the low-risk-probability ultrasound cohort were misclassified, as two had a positive ultrasound.

Our study highlights that a probability score for GCA derived from a large multi-centre cohort of patients who were biopsy positive predicts ultrasound positivity with similar accuracy. Our work reveals that scoring systems are not infallible but can be helpful in guiding clinical decision making.