Table 3.

Associations of Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) Defined at Different Variant Allele Frequency (VAF) Thresholds and Clinical Features of Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA)

		CH Defined by VAF ≥ 0.5%			CH Defined by VAF ≥ 2.0%
Variable	Patients with GCA (n = 59)	Clonal Hematopoiesis (n = 36)	No Clonal Hematopoiesis (n = 23)	P-value	Clonal Hematopoiesis (n = 15)	No Clonal Hematopoiesis (n = 44)	P-value
Age, years	72 (65–76)	72 (65–80)	71.5 (63–75)	0.44	74 (70–83)	71 (63–75)	0.07
Female	41 (69%)	27 (75%)	14 (61%)	0.26	10 (67%)	31 (70%)	0.75
Disease duration, days	458 (188–930)	413(188–894)	539 (206–1080)	0.69	495 (257–1045)	405 (182–857)	0.23
Max CRP, mg/L	49 (19–104)	47(33–113)	55 (11.5–84)	0.56	55 (40–105)	44 (15–105)	0.57
Max ESR, mm/hr	79 (40–104)	51 (24–100)	85 (69–109)	0.03	28 (19–85)	83 (45–108)	0.03
History of relapse	21 (36%)	15 (42%)	6 (26%)	0.27	10 (67%)	11 (25%)	<0.01
Cranial Symptoms*	41 (69%)	24 (67%)	17 (74%)	0.77	11 (73%)	30 (68%)	1.00
Vision Loss	7 (12%)	3 (8%)	4 (17%)	0.41	0 (0%)	7 (16%)	0.17
Constitutional #	30 (51%)	15 (42%)	15 (65%)	0.11	8 (53%)	22 (50%)	1.00
Polymyalgia rheumatica	26 (44%)	17 (47%)	9 (39%)	0.60	8 (53%)	18 (41%)	0.55
Limb claudication	20 (34%)	15 (43%)	5 (22%)	0.16	7 (47%)	13 (30%)	0.35
TAB Performed	45 (76%)	26 (72%)	19 (83%)	0.53	12 (80%)	33 (75%)	1.00
TAB Positive	32 (71%)	21 (81%)	12 (63%)	0.31	10 (83%)	23 (70%)	0.46
Large-artery damage%	30 (51%)	21 (58%)	9 (39%)	0.19	9 (60%)	21 (48%)	0.55
Methotrexate ever	29 (49%)	19 (53%)	10 (44%)	0.60	9 (60%)	20 (45%)	0.38
Tocilizumab ever	37 (63%)	23 (64%)	13 (57%)	0.58	8 (53%)	28 (64%)	0.56
Tocilizumab responder	30 (81%)	19 (83%)	12 (92%)	0.63	5 (63%)	26 (93%)	0.06

^*Defined as headaches, scalp tenderness, or jaw claudication.

^#Defined as fever, weight loss, or severe fatigue. TAB = temporal artery biopsy.

^%Defined as stenosis, occlusion, or aneurysm of aorta or primary branch artery.