Skip Navigation


Rheumatology Advance Access originally published online on January 7, 2009
Rheumatology 2009 48(3):258-261; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/ken480
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplementary Data
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
48/3/258    most recent
ken480v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (1)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Berger, C. T.
Right arrow Articles by Hess, C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Berger, C. T.
Right arrow Articles by Hess, C.
Related Collections
Right arrow Vasculitis
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

High incidence of severe ischaemic complications in patients with giant cell arteritis irrespective of platelet count and size, and platelet inhibition

C. T. Berger1,2, M. Wolbers3, P. Meyer4, T. Daikeler1,5,* and C. Hess1,2,*

1Department of Internal Medicine, 2Clinic for Transplantation Immunology and Nephrology, 3Basel Institute for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, 4Department of Ophthalmology and Institute of Pathology and 5Department of Rheumatology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.

Correspondence to: C. T. Berger, Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Basel, Petersgraben 4, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland. E-mail: bergerc{at}uhbs.ch


  Abstract

Objective. Vision loss and ischaemic stroke are feared complications in GCA. We investigated how platelet count and size and platelet inhibition with ASA relate to ischaemic complications in patients with GCA.

Methods. Charts of patients with GCA were retrospectively analysed. Jaw claudication, amaurosis fugax, blurred vision, ischaemic stroke and permanent visual loss were classified as ‘ischaemic events’; ischaemic stroke and permanent visual loss were sub-grouped as ‘severe ischaemic events’. The incidence of ischaemia and the association to the pre-defined covariates age, fever, ESR, platelet count and size and ASA treatment were assessed.

Results. Eighty-five patients (mean age 73 yrs, 60% women, 78% biopsy-proven) were included in the analysis. Of the 85 patients, 62 (73%) presented with ischaemic events, 29/85 patients (34%) with severe ischaemic events. At the time of diagnosis 22/85 patients (26%) were treated with ASA. Of these 22 patients, 15 (68%) presented with ischaemic events, 7/22 patients (32%) with severe ischaemic events. In multivariate analysis, neither platelet count nor size or ASA treatment were significantly associated with ischaemic or severe ischaemic events.

Conclusions. The incidence of severe ischaemic events in patients with GCA was high, irrespective of platelet count and size and established ASA treatment.

KEY WORDS: Giant cell arteritis, Ischaemia, Risk factors, Acetylsalicylic acid, Platelets

*T. Daikeler and C. Hess contributed equally to this work.

Submitted 9 July 2008; revised version accepted 27 November 2008.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.