1 in 3 Hospitalized Patients With GCA Readmitted Within 6 Months

A third of patients hospitalized with giant cell arteritis (GCA) in a US cohort were rehospitalized within 6 months, according to study results published online ahead of print in Arthritis Care & Research.

“Infection and cardiovascular diseases are common causes of readmission and may be related to glucocorticoid exposure,” wrote first and corresponding author Radjiv Goulabchand, MD, PhD, of the University of Montpellier in France and the University of California San Diego, and coauthors.

Researchers investigated hospitalization factors and outcomes among 1206 adults with GCA from the 2017 US National Readmission Database. The median age of patients in the study was 77 years, and 70% were women. Some 13% of patients had GCA-related ophthalmologic complications at the time of hospital admission.

During the 6 months after their index hospitalization, 34% of patients were readmitted to the hospital: 23% for infections and 15% for cardiovascular disease, according to the study. Having a Charlson comorbidity index score of 1 or higher, smoking, and obesity were linked with hospital readmission.

The median number of days patients spent in the hospital annually was 5. Patients in the top quartile spent 19 days in the hospital annually, the study found.

Some 3% of the cohort died during the study’s 6-month follow-up period.

“Population health management strategies are required in these vulnerable GCA patients,” researchers advised.

—Jolynn Tumolo

Reference:

Goulabchand R, Qian AS, Nguyen NH, et al. Burden, causes, and outcomes of hospitalization in patients with giant cell arteritis: a US national cohort study. Arthritis Care Res. Published online December 18, 2022. doi:10.1002/acr.25081