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Table 1 Patient characteristics

From: Association of HLA-DRB1 amino acid residues with giant cell arteritis: genetic association study, meta-analysis and geo-epidemiological investigation

Patient characteristic

Value (% of those with data available)

Number with data available

Female

161 (72 %)

225

Median age at onset of GCA (range), years

72 (50–94)

207

Biopsy-positive

140 (77 %)

183 (number of cases biopsied)

Median erythrocyte sedimentation rate at onset of GCA (range), mm/h

70 (5–150)

100

Median plasma viscosity at onset of GCA (range), mPa s

1.94 (1.53–2.65)

120

Median C-reactive protein at onset of GCA (range), mg/l

62.5 (<5–344)

154

Either ACR 1990 criteria for GCA fulfilled or biopsy-positive

207 (92 %)

225

Headache

184 (90 %)

204

Abnormal temporal artery as defined by ACR 1990 criteria

140 (67 %)

204

Jaw claudication

119 (57 %)

210

Visual or neurological features

116 (56 %)

207

  1. Owing to the retrospective recruitment of cases, contemporaneously recorded data on features of giant cell arteritis (GCA) at presentation were not always recorded in the medical notes. For this reason, in 24 cases, fulfilment of American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria could not be documented. Six of these were biopsy-proven. In some recruiting centres, plasma viscosity or C-reactive protein was measured instead of erythrocyte sedimentation rate