Giant Cell Arteritis

1. What is giant cell arteritis?
2. How is giant cell arteritis treated?

What is giant cell arteritis?

Giant cell arteritis is an inflammatory condition where the immune system affects the blood vessels. It most commonly involves the blood vessels in the head.

This can cause new headaches, blurry or double vision, or episodes of temporary vision loss.

Giant cell arteritis is a medical emergency. If not treated promptly, it can lead to serious complications, including permanent vision loss or, rarely, stroke.

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

How is giant cell arteritis treated?

The first treatment for giant cell arteritis is prednisone, a medication that works quickly to reduce inflammation.

While prednisone is very effective, it can cause side effects if used long term. For this reason, we often add a second medication to help control the disease and reduce the need for prednisone over time.

The most common medication we add is methotrexate. This helps us safely lower and eventually stop prednisone after several months of treatment.

Without an additional medication, there is a higher risk that the disease may return when prednisone is reduced or stopped.

RheumInfo: Prednisone

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

RheumInfo: Methotrexate

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