Epidemiology of temporal arteritis in Israel

An effort was made to identify all cases of biopsy-proven temporal arteritis (TA) diagnosed in Israel during 1960-78. A total of 46 Jewish patients was found, none of them under 50 yr of age. The age-standardized annual incidence rate of biopsy-proven TA among Jews in Israel rose from 1.6 in 1960-64 to 8.6 in 1975-78, with an overall incidence of 4.9 new cases diagnosed annually/10(6) population greater than or equal to 50 yr. The male:female ratio was 0.95. The annual incidence was 0.2 cases/10(6) population aged 50 to 59 yr, and 11.6/10(6) population greater than or equal to 70 yr of age. We feel that apparent increase in the incidence of TA is due to increased awareness of the disease rather than to an increase in morbidity.