Glucocorticoid Treatment Lasts Years for Many Patients With Giant Cell Arteritis

Approximately 44% of patients prescribed glucocorticoids for giant cell arteritis (GCA) were still taking them 5 years after diagnosis, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology.

“This meta-analysis showed that giant cell arteritis is a chronic disease that requires substantial and prolonged glucocorticoid treatment in a considerable proportion of patients,” wrote corresponding author Lien Moreel, MD, of University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium, and study coauthors.

The systematic review and meta-analysis included 22 studies involving a total 1786 patients with GCA. Researchers estimated the mean duration of glucocorticoid treatment in the patient population.

At 1 year after diagnosis, the pooled proportion of patients with GCA taking glucocorticoids was 89.7%, according to the study. At 2 years after diagnosis, 75.2% remained on glucocorticoid treatment. At 5 years after diagnosis, 44.3% were still taking glucocorticoids.

The average glucocorticoid dose was 9.1 mg/day at both the 1- and 2-year timepoints. At year 5, the average dose was 7.8 mg/day, the study found.

Multicenter studies, randomized controlled trials, and studies using a glucocorticoid-tapering schedule had lower proportions of patients taking glucocorticoids at 1 year.

“A predefined glucocorticoid-tapering schedule may help to avoid inadequately long glucocorticoid treatment,” researchers advised.

Reference:
Moreel L, Betrains A, Molenberghs G, Blockmans D, Vanderschueren S. Duration of treatment with glucocorticoids in giant cell arteritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Clin Rheumatol. 2023;29(6):291-297. doi:10.1097/RHU.0000000000001897