Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0039483 (giant cell arteritis)
 3,204 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Eleven newly-diagnosed GCA patients were included in a prospective open study and treated with high initial prednisone doses, a quick-tapering CS schedule and weekly oral MTX for two years. It took a mean of 14 weeks to reach a 10 mg/day dose of prednisone and 29.8 weeks until steroid withdrawal. The mean cumulative dose of prednisone was 3.4 g. Two patients relapsed and five developed CS side effects. No serious MTX side effects were observed. Our results suggest that MTX is safe and could be useful in the therapy of GCA.
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PMID:Methotrexate treatment in the management of giant cell arteritis. 780 Oct 52

For decades, the treatment of GCA has relied on glucocorticoids. Work over the past two decades has supported a modest efficacy of MTX but no clear benefit from anti-TNF-based therapies. More recently, the therapeutic armamentarium for GCA has expanded. The availability of agents targeting specific cytokines, cytokine receptors or signalling pathways, along with a better, although still limited, understanding of the immunopathology of GCA, are opening further therapeutic possibilities. Blocking IL-6 receptor with tocilizumab has been effective in maintaining remission and reducing glucocorticoid exposure and tocilizumab has been approved for the treatment of GCA. However, nearly half of the patients do not benefit from tocilizumab and additional options need to be investigated. This review focuses on standard therapeutic approaches and on targeted therapies that have been or are currently under investigation.
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PMID:Treatment of giant-cell arteritis: from broad spectrum immunosuppressive agents to targeted therapies. 3234 25