Active clinical trials for "Giant Cell Arteritis"

This study series consists of four related studies and aims to explore and describe many important elements of alopecia areata over three key areas: (1) the current epidemiology of alopecia areata, (2) the prevalence and incidence of psychiatric co-morbidities in people with alopecia areata, (3) the prevalence and incidence of autoimmune and atopic conditions in people with alopecia areata, and (4) the incidence of common infections in people with alopecia areata.

The purpose of this study is to learn about the impact of vasculitis on employment and income in patients with different systemic vasculitides. All patients enrolled in the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium (VCRC) Patient Contact Registry, living in USA or Canada, and followed for more than 1 year since the vasculitis diagnosis will be invited via email to participate in this study, based on an online survey.

The purpose of this study is to learn about how patients with vasculitis think about their illness and to assess to what extent patient perceptions of illness are associated with physical, mental, and social functioning

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common vasculitis in adults. The diagnosis of GCA is evoked by the association of clinical signs and biological anomalies (inflammatory syndrome) in patients over 50 years of age. On the other hand, starting a treatment implies being certain of the diagnosis which requires performing a temporal artery biopsy under local anesthesia. This examination is therefore an invasive procedure for patients whose sensitivity is not optimal. This is why imaging techniques (echo-Doppler or MRI of the temporal arteries) have been developed to look for signs of vasculitis without the need to perform a biopsy. However, these examinations lack sensitivity (=falsely concluding the absence of GCA) and specificity (=falsely concluding the presence of GCA). Recently, advances in imaging, and in particular positron emission tomography (PET), have made it possible to visualize the cephalic arteries, including the temporal artery. The aim of this study is therefore to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of PET of the cephalic arteries for the diagnosis of GCA and to compare them with those of echo-Doppler and MRI of the temporal arteries.

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most frequent vasculitis in patients above 50 years of age. The disease has limited mortality, mostly due to the development of aortic aneurysms, leading to dissection and rupture. The probability to develop this complication is 17 x higher at the level of the thoracic aorta and 2,4 x at the level of the abdominal aorta in patients with GCA when compared with a control group. Therefore, follow-up of the aortic diameter in patients with GCA is part of good clinical practice. Previous retrospective research showed a link between FDG-uptake at the level of the thoracic aorta, on positron-emission-tomography (PET) at the time of diagnosis, and the increase of diameter and volume of the thoracic aorta during follow-up (on computed tomography (CT)). The purpose of this prospective study is to follow-up on the aortic diameter, and to correlate these measures with FDG-PET uptake at diagnosis. Ideally, this would allow us to define a group of patients at high risk to develop an aortic aneurysm, already at the time of diagnosis.

Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is a systemic inflammatory disorder with unknown etiology and overlapping symptoms with giant cell arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The proteomic profile of PMR patients remains uncharacterized and biomarker studies very limited. The primary aim of this study was to thoroughly investigate the lymphocyte expression of melanocortin receptors, and the serum proteome during glucocorticoid treatment of PMR with a focus on acute-phase reactions, the complement system, and pro-inflammatory cytokines.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the ability of contrast enhanced carotid ultrasound to serve as an indicator of disease activity in patients with Takayasu's arteritis or Giant Cell arteritis and to determine if patients with active arteritis have a thickening of their blood vessel walls compared to healthy people of the same age and gender.

This study seeks to understand the journey that patients eventually are diagnosed with vasculitis experience in the period prior to their formal diagnosis by a healthcare provider. Data elements of interest include average time from the onset of the first symptoms to the time a diagnosis of vasculitis is confirmed. Other aims include identifying factors associated with the time to diagnosis. These factors will be divided into: a) intrinsic factors, or so-called "patient-related factors", such as the type of vasculitis symptoms, patient demographics, socioeconomic status, patients' beliefs regarding the etiology of their symptoms, and other factors, and b) extrinsic factors, or "professional/health system factors", such as healthcare access, referral patterns, testing patterns, and other factors. Understanding such factors can guide future efforts to shorten delays in diagnosis and thereby improve outcomes. All analyses will be done for the population of patients with vasculitis as a whole and by individual types of vasculitis.

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.

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.