Table 2.

Recent Studies of Visual Recovery With Corticosteroid Treatment of Giant Cell Arteritis

Study	Year	Design	N	Findings
Liu et al.³³	1994	Retrospective	41	34% of patients with visual loss had visual improvement with IV or oral corticosteroids. More benefit was seen in the patients who received IV treatment.
Gonzales-Gay et al.⁸	1998	Retrospective	34	Early treatment (within 24 hours) was the only predictor of recovery of VA. No significant difference between IV and oral treatment.
Kupersmith et al.⁷⁵	1999	Prospective	22	4 of 9 (44%) eyes had improved VA within 1 month of starting treatment with oral prednisone.
Hayreh et al.²²	2002	Retrospective	114	4% of patients had improvement of both VA and central VF on treatment. A trend toward improvement was seen with immediate treatment.
Foroozan et al.²³	2003	Retrospective	32	13% of patients had improvement of VA with treatment (time from onset of symptoms not specified), but none showed significant improvement in VF.
Danesh-Meyer et al.²⁴	2005	Prospective	34	Patients received treatment within 10 days after onset of visual loss (mean 2 days). 15% of patients had improvement of VA of 2 or more lines. No significant improvement was seen of VF or color vision.

GCA, giant cell arteritis; IV, intravenous; VA, visual acuity; VF, visual field.