The Incidence Rate of Giant Cell Arteritis in Slovenia

Natasa Potocnik¹, Alojzija Hocevar¹, Ziga Rotar¹, Joze Pizem², Marko Hawlina³, Ana Fakin³ and Matija Tomšič¹, ¹Department of Rheumatology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, ²Institute of Pathology, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Medicine, Ljubljana, Slovenia, ³Department of Ophthalmology, University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Meeting: 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting

Date of first publication: September 29, 2015

Keywords: giant cell arteritis and vasculitis

Session Information

Date: Monday, November 9, 2015

Title: Vasculitis Poster II

Session Type: ACR Poster Session B

Session Time: 9:00AM-11:00AM

Background/Purpose:

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common systemic vasculitis in adults aged 50 years or above. Annual incidence rates vary widely from 6.9–76.6 per 10⁵ of adults in this age group, depending on the region.¹Our aim was to determine the incidence rate of GCA in our population.

Methods: We prospectively collected incident cases of GCA from January 1^st 2011 to December 31^st 2014 at our department of rheumatology which is a part of an integrated secondary/tertiary university teaching hospital that is the only referral center serving a region representing approximately a quarter of the national adult population. Additionally, newly diagnosed cases of GCA between January 1^st 2009 and December 31^st 2010 were retrospectively identified by searching the electronic patient records for ICD-10 codes M31.5 and M31.6 at our department. The retrospective approach and search strategy was also applied on electronic medical records at the departments of infectious diseases and ophthalmology between January 1^st 2009 and December 31^st 2014. To further reduce possibility of underreporting, the attached medical faculty’s Institute of Pathology provided a list of all temporal artery biopsies examined during the observation period which were then cross-referenced with the hospital’s electronic medical records. Annual incidence rate for GCA was then calculated.

Results:

During the six year observation period we identified 137 new cases of GCA (68% female; mean (IQR) age 75.9 (11.1) years) from a well-defined adult white Caucasian population of 235,596 inhabitants aged 50 or above. The temporal artery biopsy was consistent with GCA, negative or not performed in 80.2 %, 19.8 %, and 8.0 % of cases, respectively. Thus, the average six years annual incidence of GCA in our population is 9.7 (95 % CI 8.1–15.5), the highest was in 2010 (11.7 (95% CI 7.7-17.1)), and the lowest in 2013 (7.5 (95% CI 4.4-11.8)) per 10⁵ adults aged 50 or above.

Conclusion:

The average annual incidence rate of 9.7 per 10⁵ adults aged 50 or above makes GCA the most common systemic vasculitis in our population.

Reference:

1. Gonzalez-Gay MA, Vazquez-Rodriguez TR, Lopez-Diaz MJ et al. Epidemiology of Giant Cell Arteritis and Polymyalgia Rheumatica. Arthritis Rheum 2009;61:1454-61.

Disclosure: N. Potocnik, None; A. Hocevar, None; Z. Rotar, None; J. Pizem, None; M. Hawlina, None; A. Fakin, None; M. Tomšič, None.

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Potocnik N, Hocevar A, Rotar Z, Pizem J, Hawlina M, Fakin A, Tomšič M. The Incidence Rate of Giant Cell Arteritis in Slovenia [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2015; 67 (suppl 10). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/the-incidence-rate-of-giant-cell-arteritis-in-slovenia/. Accessed .

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