Table 1.
Characteristics of the study population
| Healthy controls | GCA patients at diagnosis | GCA patients after 3 months of treatment | P‐valuea | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | GC alone | GC + TCZ | All | GC alone | GC + TCZ | |||
| n = 40 | n = 43 | n = 23 | n = 20 | n = 41 | n = 21 | n = 20 | ||
| Age, mean ± SEM | 73.6 ± 1.9 | 74.9 ± 1.2 | 76.9 ± 1.6 | 72.6 ± 1.7 | 0.568 | |||
| Sex (H/F) | 16/24 | 14/29 | 9/14 | 5/15 | 0.481 | |||
| GCA characteristics, n (%) | ||||||||
| Weight loss | 33 (77) | 20 (87) | 13 (65) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ‐ | |
| Headache | 35 (81) | 18 (78) | 17 (85) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ‐ | |
| Jaw claudication | 15 (35) | 6 (23) | 9 (45) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ‐ | |
| Scalp tenderness | 18 (42) | 10 (44) | 8 (40) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ‐ | |
| Abnormal temporal artery | 25 (58) | 11 (48) | 14 (70) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ‐ | |
| Visual signs | 8 (19) | 5 (22) | 3 (15) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ‐ | |
| PMR | 18 (42) | 12 (52) | 6 (30) | 1 (2) | 1 (5) | 0 | ‐ | |
| Aortitisb | 15/37 (41) | 8/21 (38) | 7/16 (44) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ‐ | |
| Halo sign with US scan | 14/22 (64) | 8/10 (80) | 6/12 (50) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ‐ | |
| Positive TAB | 30/41 (73) | 13/22 (59) | 17/19 (89) | 0 | 0 | 0 | ‐ | |
| Biology, mean ± SEM | ||||||||
| Lymphocytes (G L−1) | 1.70 ± 0.01 | 1.46 ± 0.09 | 1.40 ± 0.13 | 1.53 ± 0.12 | 1.92 ± 0.14 | 1.63 ± 0.14 | 2.22 ± 0.23 | 0.077 |
| CD3+ (%) | 72 ± 1 | 75 ± 2 | 75 ± 2 | 75 ± 2 | 75 ± 1 | 72 ± 2 | 78 ± 2 | 0.090 |
| CD3+CD4+ (%) | 46 ± 2 | 54 ± 2 | 54 ± 3 | 53 ± 3 | 52 ± 2 | 51 ± 3 | 53 ± 3 | 0.008 |
| CD3+CD8+ (%) | 22 ± 1 | 19 ± 1 | 18 ± 2 | 20 ± 2 | 20 ± 2 | 19 ± 3 | 21 ± 2 | 0.126 |
| ESR (mm h−1) | 16.9 ± 1.6 | 84.6 ± 4.1 | 86.6 ± 5.1 | 82.3 ± 6.7 | 14.5 ± 2.4 | 24.6 ± 3.4 | 3.9 ± 1.0 | < 0.0001 |
| CRP (mg L−1) | 3.5 ± 0.3 | 80.7 ± 9.2 | 88.5 ± 11.9 | 71.6 ± 14.2 | 4.9 ± 1.2 | 7.7 ± 2.2 | 2.0 ± 0.3 | < 0.0001 |
| Fibrinogen (g L−1) | 3.4 ± 0.1 | 6.8 ± 0.2 | 6.8 ± 0.3 | 6.8 ± 0.3 | 3.0 ± 0.2 | 3.7 ± 0.2 | 2.2 ± 0.1 | < 0.0001 |
| Treatment | ||||||||
| On prednisone, n (%) | 0 | 12 (28) | 0 | 12 (60)c | 41 (100) | 21 (100) | 20 (100) | ‐ |
| Prednisone (mg per day), mean ± SEM | 0 | 12.3 ± 3.1 | 0 | 26.4 ± 5.2 | 15.3 ± 0.7 | 16.0 ± 1.2 | 14.6 ± 0.7 | ‐ |
PMR, polymyalgia rheumatica; SEM, standard error of the mean; TAB, temporal artery biopsy.
a
Healthy controls vs. all GCA patients at diagnosis.
b
Aortitis was defined as regular circumferential wall thickening ≥ 3 mm in the absence of calcification and/or significant atheroma on angio‐CT images, or a homogeneous vascular signal more intense than the liver on 18FDG‐PET images.
c
Prednisone was started from 7.2 ± 1.5 days.