Active clinical trials for "Arteritis"

Repeat MRI of the Superficial temporal Artery in 5 volunteers

Assessing disease activity in people with Takayasu's arteritis is difficult, as most people with the disease do not exhibit visible, measurable symptoms. Combination positron emission tomography/computed axial tomography (PET/CT) is a particularly sensitive, accurate scanning method that may improve researchers' ability to evaluate people with the disease. This study will determine the effectiveness of PET/CT in assessing disease activity in people with Takayasu's arteritis.

The aim of this project is to prospectively evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of different imaging tools in specific giant cell arteritis disease subsets before and after treatment initiation. Diagnostic tools with high sensitivity and specificity are a prerequisite for optimal treatment of GCA patients. Specifically, the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound (US) as compared to 18F-FDG PET/CT in new-onset, treatment naïve large vessel(LV)-GCA patients is investigated. Furthermore, long-term follow up including US, 18F-FDG PET/CT and cross sectional imaging is performed to explore the potential of imaging as monitoring and prognostic tools. In this observational cohort, the diagnostic accuracy of 18F-FDG PET/CT after three and ten days of glucocorticoid treatment in the subset of LV-GCA patients and the diagnostic accuracy of 18F-FDG PET/CT in cranial artery inflammation in new-onset, treatment naïve c-GCA patients as compared to a control group of patients with a previous diagnosis of malignant melanoma was also evaluated and is registered elsewhere (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03285945 and NCT03409913, respectively)

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) affects large and medium sized vessels. Large vessel-GCA (LV-GCA) affecting aorta and/or its main branches is seen a) together with temporal arteritis (AT-GCA), b) as isolated LV-GCA but also c) with polymyalgia rheumatica. There is a risk of vision loss and cerebral thromboembolic events or great vessel injury in GCA. With delayed or inadequate treatment mortality and morbidity increases. This highlights the need of fast diagnosis and early treatment. The cornerstone in the diagnosis of GCA is a positive temporal artery biopsy. Patients with LV-GCA have more general, but less cephalic symptoms than patients with AT-GCA. Also, biopsy from large vessels can rarely be done and only 50% have a positive temporal artery biopsy (TAB). Hence, diagnosis often rely on imaging. Fluorine-18-fluorodeoxyglucose positron-emission tomography (FDG PET)/CT has shown high diagnostic sensitivity and specificity and is believed to be superior to other imaging modalities in the diagnosis of LV-GCA . The impact of FDG PET/CT in the management of LV-GCA has been evaluated and has shown to increase the diagnostic accuracy in a significant proportion of patients. However, studies have indicated a lower sensitivity in steroid treated patients. The aim of this study, was to evaluate the effect of steroid treatment on large-vessel FDG uptake in new-onset, treatment-naive LV-GCA by repetitive FDG PET/CT pre- and post therapeutic. With insights into the diagnostic capabilities after treatment is initiated, the possibility of timely treatment and confident diagnostic work up will improve.

Antiphospholipid (APL) antibodies are a heterogeneous family of auto-antibodies, predominantly represented by anticardiolipin (ACL) antibodies and lupus anticoagulant (LA). Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is defined as the presence of APL associated with venous and/or arterial thrombosis or repeated foetal loss. APS may be either primary or secondary to an autoimmune disease, mainly systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, other than in the context of APS, APL can also be observed in various clinical situations and in healthy subjects. Published studies have reported a variable prevalence of APL in healthy subjects, essentially ACL and/or LA, and their clinical significance currently remains unclear. Several studies have highlighted the link between APL and atherosclerosis. It therefore appears interesting to more specifically study the association between the presence of APL and the presence of cardiovascular risk factors in a population of healthy subjects. Atherosclerosis is currently considered to be a chronic inflammatory disease arising from a complex interaction between atherogenic plasma factors and cells of the arterial wall. Several inflammatory markers are now known to be associated with cardiovascular risk. Lipid peroxidation also plays a major role during the atherogenesis process. It will therefore also be important to correlate APL with markers of vascular inflammation and markers of oxidative stress. A prospective case-control study will therefore be conducted on 1,500 healthy blood donors. Subjects screened APL-positive will be compared to APL-negative subjects in terms of cardiovascular risk factors (cardiovascular risk per se, the presence of cardiovascular disease will not be studied). In the context of a blood donation, all subjects wishing to participate in this study will attend a medical interview and a clinical examination during which various data will be collected, mainly the presence of cardiovascular risk factors. A blood sample will also be taken to assay the various laboratory markers studied. This study should provide a better understanding of the role of APL in healthy subjects and more clearly specify their possible link with atherosclerosis in this population.

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) or Horton's disease: frequent large vessel vasculitis (cephalic) (incidence estimated at 9 per 100,000 in France), potentially responsible for blindness. Treatment: corticosteroid therapy, which is effective in the vast majority of cases. Clinical problem: relapse; 36% to 44% of patients have a relapse that occurs in the first year for many patients, requiring a re-escalation of corticosteroid therapy, with its consequences: Cumulative dose of corticosteroid therapy that causes cardiovascular and infectious morbidity. Requires additional immunosuppressive treatment.

Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA) causes inflammation and narrowing of blood vessels and can cause blindness in one third of patients. It is important that a prompt, accurate diagnosis of GCA is made and treatment given as steroids for two or more years. Currently there is no 100% accurate test for GCA. Patients usually have new headache and scalp tenderness, typically with an abnormal blood test. However, it can be difficult to distinguish non-serious forms of headache from GCA; infection produces similar abnormal blood results. If there is a suspicion of GCA, treatment with steroids is started straight away. To confirm a diagnosis, the patient will need a biopsy of a temporal artery (a minor procedure performed under local anaesthetic to remove a sample of one of the scalp arteries). However, up to 44% of patients will have a normal biopsy. Therefore it is difficult to know if a patient with a normal biopsy does or does not have GCA. Withdrawing steroid treatment may increase the risk of blindness. Continuing treatment in a patient without GCA increases the risk of side effects (e.g., weight gain, infection risk, osteoporosis and fracture risk, high blood pressure, diabetes, cataracts). It is important to improve diagnostic tests for GCA. Another test to help in diagnosing GCA is an ultrasound scan of the arteries in the side of the head and under the arms. Ultrasound does not involve surgery; it is a simple test which can be performed as an out patient. Gel is applied to both sides of the head and under each arm. A sound probe is placed over the artery at each site to produce the scan. The investigators' study will examine the role of ultrasound in diagnosis of 402 patients with suspected GCA. All patients will have an ultrasound examination in addition to biopsy within a week of starting steroids. Patients will be treated according to usual practice. After six months, the investigators will reassess the diagnosis. The investigators will look at the accuracy of ultrasound compared with or combined with biopsy. The investigators will look at how a doctor's knowledge of ultrasound results or biopsy results alone would affect the diagnosis and recommendation to continue or stop steroid treatment. The investigators will assess whether knowledge of both results together would alter the diagnosis and treatment. The investigators will collect information to estimate the costs of different ways of diagnosing GCA in relation to the impact on quality of life.

Giant cell arteritis (GCA), also known as temporal arteritis, is a disease that usually only occurs in older adults. GCA causes inflammation of blood vessels, or vasculitis. In order to properly treat this disease, it is critical that the level of disease activity can be determined over the course of the disease. The purpose of this study is to determine new biological markers, or biomarkers, that may be used to assess the severity of disease in people with GCA.

The trial is a prospective, observational study aiming to identify risk factors for serious COVID-19 infection by evaluating clinical measures and biomarkers of inflammation in patients with inflammatory rheumatic disease hospitalized with COVID-19 compared with control groups.

Giant cell arteritis is the leading cause of vasculitis in the elderly. No work evaluates its impact on autonomy. At the diagnosis a gerontological evaluation will be carried out including the scores ADL, iADL, MNA, SF 36, SPPB, FRIED and GDS. A monthly telephone reassessment will collect ADL and iADL. The end-of-study consultation at M12, conducted by a geriatrician, will have the same scores as at M0. This will make it possible to evaluate the difference in the functional autonomy score between M0 and M12 in the elderly with ACG.