Cardiovascular risk among Giant cells arteritis patients

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a chronic large-vessel vasculitis affecting older adults, associated with significant cardiovascular (CV) complications. Understanding CV risk drivers among GCA, including classical CV risk factors and inflammation, is essential for improved patient management. We (i) assessed the association between GCA and risks of cardiovascular events, including aortic events, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), peripheral artery disease (PAD) events, and visceral artery events (ii) assessed the impact of traditional CV risk factors and GCA disease activity on these outcomes.

Using the French National Health Data System (SNDS), we included 23,193 patients aged ≥50 years diagnosed with incident GCA from 2012-2022. Patients were matched with a general population cohort (92,772 individuals) and a hospitalized cohort (92,772 individuals) using propensity score matching based on CV comorbidities. Primary outcomes were first incidence of aortic events, MACE, PAD events, and visceral artery events.

Patients with GCA faced an increased risk of all CV outcomes compared with the general population cohort: aortic events (HR: 5.33; 95%CI, 4.50-6.32), MACE (HR: 2.15; 95% CI, 2.04-2.26), PAD events (HR: 2.72; 95%CI, 2.47-2.99), and visceral artery events (HR: 3.04; 95%CI, 2.33-3.97).When compared with the hospitalized cohort, GCA patients had increased risk of all outcomes except for MACE risk which did not significantly differ (HR: 1.01; 95%CI, 0.96-1.06). GCA disease activity was associated with increased MACE (HR: 1.98; 95%CI, 1.63-2.42).

GCA significantly increases risks of vascular complications, highlighting the importance of cardiovascular risk management and inflammation control strategies.