Session Information
Date: Sunday, October 26, 2025
Title: (0731–0764) Vasculitis – Non-ANCA-Associated & Related Disorders Poster I
Session Type: Poster Session A
Session Time: 10:30AM-12:30PM
Background/Purpose: Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a large vessel vasculitis that predominantly affects older adults, with a higher prevalence in women. Previous studies exploring sex-related differences in clinical presentation have shown disparate results. The aim of this study was to analyze whether there are differences in the clinical presentation of GCA between men and women, stratified by age at diagnosis.
Methods: ARTESER is a large Spanish multicenter epidemiological registry of GCA promoted by the Spanish Society of Rheumatology (SER*) in which 26 general hospitals participated. The recruitment period was between June 2013 and March 2019. Standardized data were included for all patients diagnosed with GCA in these centers, including demographic and clinical presentation. Age was artificially grouped into three categories (< 70, 70–80, and >80 years) to reflect the most frequent age range of presentation and to optimize the visualization of clinical patterns. This grouping also accounted for the relatively small number of patients in the youngest and oldest age groups. Differences between sexes were compared in a bivariate analysis. Statistical analysis was performed by using STATA statistical package, V.13.1 and SPSS version 21.0.
Results: A total of 1,675 patients with GCA were included in the study, of whom 1,178 were women and 497 men. Among patients younger than 70 years, men presented more frequently with visual symptoms (33.0% vs. 21.7%; p=0.038) and stroke events (7.7% vs. 1.9%; p=0.015) compared to women. In the 70-80 years group, men had a higher frequency of stroke (6.2% vs. 2.3%; p=0.013), dysphagia (7.2% vs. 2.5%; p=0.005), and transient ischaemic attacks (3.6% vs. 1.0%; p=0.024), whereas women showed a greater prevalence of polymyalgia rheumatica (46.3% vs. 33.0%; p=0.003). Weight loss was also more common among men (41.2% vs. 28.2%; p=0.001). No significant sex-based differences were observed in patients aged over 80 years. Results are shown in Table 1.
Conclusion: Sex-related differences in the clinical presentation of GCA were mainly observed in patients diagnosed before the age of 80. Men showed a higher frequency of cranial ischemic manifestations, such as visual symptoms and stroke, whereas women more frequently presented with polymyalgia rheumatica. These findings highlight the importance of considering both sex and age at diagnosis when assessing patients with suspected GCA.
Table 1: Clinical manifestations between sexes according to age at diagnosis.
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
Fernandez-Lozano D, Domínguez-Álvaro M, Narváez J, Garrido N, de Miguel E, Estrada-Alarcón P, Hernández-Rodríguez I, Silva-Diaz M, Belzunegui J, Moriano C, Sánchez Martín J, Calvo-Zorrilla I, Aldasoro Cáceres V, Abasolo Alcazar l, Loricera J, Benito-Melero r, Garcia-Villanueva M, Sánchez-Alonso F, Castañeda S, Hernández J, Blanco R. Age and Sex Influence on Clinical Manifestations of Giant Cell Arteritis: Results from the ARTESER Registry [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2025; 77 (suppl 9). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/age-and-sex-influence-on-clinical-manifestations-of-giant-cell-arteritis-results-from-the-arteser-registry/. Accessed .« Back to ACR Convergence 2025
ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/age-and-sex-influence-on-clinical-manifestations-of-giant-cell-arteritis-results-from-the-arteser-registry/