Giant Cell Arteritis

What is giant cell arteritis?

Giant cell arteritis is an autoimmune disease where the body’s immune system attacks the blood vessels and causes inflammation. When this affects the blood vessels in the headache, it can result in new headaches, blurry vision, double vision or intermittent complete loss of vision. Giant cell arteritis is a medical emergency. Rarely, it can progress to strokes and permanent blindness if left untreated.

RheumInfo Giant Cell Arteritis: https://rheuminfo.com/docs/diseases/pictos/GCA-Patient-Guide-RheumInfo_EN.pdf

How is giant cell arteritis treated?

The first line treatment is with prednisone. This medication works quickly to reduce inflammation. However, there are many potential side effects with long term prednisone use, so we add on other therapy to help treat this disease.

RheumInfo: Prednisone

https://rheuminfo.com/en/medications/prednisone/

The first medication we add is methotrexate. This helps us take you off prednisone after several months. If we did not start methotrexate and you stopped prednisone, you would have a 50% chance of the disease coming back.

RheumInfo: Methotrexate

https://rheuminfo.com/docs/medications/pictos/Methotrexate-Patient-Guide-RheumInfo_EN.pdf