Epidemiological Aspects of Giant Cell Arteritis

Abstract

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a systemic vasculitis that affects medium-to-large-sized arteries, in which the inflammatory reaction destroys the artery wall with the fragmentation of the elastic lamina. Such phenomena can result in vision loss if not treated promptly. Other nonocular symptoms noted include GCA, headache, tenderness in the temporal area of the scalp, myalgias and arthralgias, fever, weight loss, and jaw claudication. Clinical suspicion is an essential pathway to the diagnosis of this disease. Thus, immediate Westergren sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein should be obtained. A temporal artery biopsy, however, remains the most definitive diagnostic tool. The incidence of GCA remarkably increases with each decade of age among those aged 50 years or over. Additionally, there have been notable differences among patients of different ethnicities. The epidemiological characteristics of GCA have been primarily researched in populations from the United States as well as several European countries with emphasis on the Caucasian population. In more recent years, a handful of studies have emerged from non-European countries regarding the epidemiology of GCA. The results of these findings are in parallel with previous observations, which presumed GCA to be more common in European and North American populations.