Active clinical trials for "Arteritis"

The purpose of this study is to describe medical practices in patients with GCA in terms of patient journey, diagnostic methods and specific GCA treatments since diagnosis.

A case-control study to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of FDG uptake in cranial arteries by FDG PET/CT in the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis.

Evaluation of the structural features of temporal arteritis using two frequencies probes: 18 and 22Mhz.

The purpose of this study is to learn about reproductive health, including fertility and pregnancies, in people with vasculitis.

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is an inflammatory disease causing new, unaccustomed headache in the elderly and which can lead to blindness in 20-30% of untreated cases. The study group have previously shown that ultrasound is a viable non-invasive alternative to temporal artery biopsy in diagnosing GCA. However, there is significant variation in ultrasound assessment (measuring a dark "halo" around the abnormal blood vessels) between sonographers in different centres, requiring a labour intensive and time consuming training programme. The study group propose to standardise the training programme, and use ultrasound and clinical evaluation to define changes occurring over time and with treatment in patients with a diagnosis of GCA made based on ultrasound changes alone. The study group will explore the use of algorithms to automate or semi-automate image interpretation.

It is estimated that 800,000 people in France suffer from peripheral artery disease (PAD), of whom 1-2% present the most severe form critical limb ischaemia (CLI). In this situation, the patient frequently presents painful non-healing ulcers and focal gangrene. Wound care is generally associated with increasing pain. Pain relief may be challenging in spite of major analgesics. Several studies in this country and elsewhere assessed the usefulness of music for chronic or acute pain relief during care. However, no data are published regarding the interest of music therapy for pain relief during local care in PAD patients.

Takayasu arteritis (TA) is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting large and medium caliber arteries, particularly the aortic arch and its main branches. Clinical manifestations are caused by the marked thickening of the wall of the involved vessels, resulting in lumen narrowing and ischemia of the tributary districts. Therapy is based on the use of corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, and biologic drugs including infliximab, a monoclonal antibody blocking tissue necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha. Biosimilar infliximab is commercially available and used in the treatment of various immune-mediated conditions. There are currently no data on the efficacy and safety of biosimilar infliximab in the treatment of TA. The investigators propose this monocentric, observational, prospective, open label study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of biosimilar infliximab in the treatment of 30 patients with TA. Specifically, the study will include: I) TA patients refractory to treatment with corticosteroid and/or immmunosuppressive therapy, not previously treated with infliximab; II) TA patients already receiving treatment with originator infliximab. Biosimilar infliximab will be administered at dosages usually employed in the treatment of TA. Specifically, patients not previously treated with the originator drug will receive biosimilar infliximab intravenously at a dose of 5 mg/Kg at time 0, at week 2, at week 4; thereafter, treatment will be administered every 4-6 weeks at a dose of 5-10 mg/kg based on clinical judgement. In patients previously treated with the originator drug, biosimilar infliximab will be administered at the same dosages. To evaluate the efficacy of therapy, changes in clinical manifestations, laboratory examinations, and imaging findings including angio-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of thoracic and abdominal vessels and total body PET/CT scan will be evaluate at time 0 as well as 6 and 12 months following treatment initiation. In order to evaluate the safety of the study treatment, the investigators will stringently evaluate possible side effects of treatment, including infusion reactions, changes in laboratory tests, infection, cancer, autoimmune manifestations, neurological and cardiovascular symptoms. The total duration of follow up for each patient will be 52 weeks from enrolment.

Takayasu arteritis(TA) is a chronic progressive vasculitis predominantly affecting the aorta and its major branches. The demographic, clinical and prognostic features of Takayasu arteritis in China remains in uncertainties. Investigators aim to setup a national registration study for Takayasu arteritis, to observe the prevalence, clinical manifestations, natural history, survival, progression, diagnostic and therapeutic methods of the disease in China.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a potentially fatal disease that represents a great global public health concern. In European countries such as Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal, England and France, the pandemic has been of utmost importance. To date, no treatment has been robustly validated, and two theoretically opposite therapeutic strategies are proposed, based either on antiretroviral therapy or on immunomodulating agents. In this complex context, people living with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID) raise specific concerns due to their potentially increased risk of infections or of severe infections. Among IMID, Sjögren's syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis and giant cell arteritis are some key diseases. In this cross-sectional, observational, multi-centric study, the investigators aim to assess both clinical and serological prevalence of COVID-19 among samples of IMID patients in Europe. In parallel, the investigators aim to compare the prevalence of COVID-19 seroconversion across these five IMIDs, their penetration across different 6 European countries (France, Italy, Spain, Germany, United Kingdom and Portugal), and to assess the severity of COVID-19 in these patients. Moreover, changes in treatment will be assessed, including immunomodulatory tapering or discontinuation, its causes over the outbreak period, as well as the incidence of IMID flares and their severity over this same period. Finally, patient's perceptions towards the pandemic will be evaluated and compared to medication beliefs. Data will be collected through questionnaires during medical visit or phone consultation and serological tests will be performed within routine blood collection. As so, all study procedures are comprised within usual care. Through this study the investigators expect to have a better knowledge of the clinical and serological prevalence of COVID-19 in IMID across Europe, along with the psychological, clinical, and therapeutic impact of COVID-19 in this particular patient population.

Vasculitis is group of diseases where inflammation of blood vessels is the common feature. Patients typically present with fever, fatigue, weakness and muscle and joint aches. These symptoms are very common among many different diseases, not just vasculitis. A clustering of other symptoms, physical examination findings, blood tests, radiology and biopsy help make the diagnosis. There are currently no criteria to help doctors make a diagnosis of vasculitis when a patient presents with these non specific symptoms and they are reliant on previous experience and disease definitions. One of the aims of this project is to develop diagnostic criteria for the primary systemic vasculitides (granulomatosis with polyangiitis (Wegener's), microscopic polyangiitis, Churg Strauss syndrome, polyarteritis nodosa, giant cell arteritis, Takayasu arteritis). We, the investigators, will do this by studying a large group of patients with vasculitis and comparing them to a large group of patients that present in a similar way, but do not have vasculitis. By comparing the 2 groups we will create a list of items to differentiate between vasculitis and 'vasculitis mimics'. We also aim to update the current classification criteria. Classification criteria are used to group patients into different types of vasculitis, once a diagnosis of vasculitis has been made, and are useful for studying patients in clinical trials with similar or identical diseases. The current classification criteria (American college of Rheumatology 1990 criteria) were developed 20 years ago, before the availability of some important diagnostic tests (e.g. antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies [ANCA]), and are now not consistent with some of the current disease definitions. Therefore to progress future research in vasculitis, it is important that the classification criteria are updated. We will recruit 260 patients with each of the 6 types of vasculitis and compare them with 1300 controls (patients with the 5 other types of vasculitis), in order to determine the optimal combination of symptoms, signs and investigations that classify each person into the appropriate group.