Clinical outcomes of patients with giant cell arteritis treated with tocilizumab in real-world clinical practice: decreased incidence of new visual manifestations

Table 2 Disease flares before and after TCZ initiation

	Total patients, N = 60
	Before TCZ initiation	After TCZ initiation
Follow-up time, median (IQR), years	0.6 (0.2–1.6)	0.6 (0.3–1.5)
Rate of flares per year*
Rate (95% CI)	1.4 (1.0–2.1)	0.6 (0.3–1.0)
Rate ratio (95% CI)		0.4 (0.3–0.6)
p value		0.0001
Patients with ≥ 1 flare, n (%)	43 (71.7)	18 (30.0)
1 flare	19 (31.7)	11 (18.3)
2 flares	11 (18.3)	3 (5.0)
3 flares	4 (6.7)	3 (5.0)
≥ 4 flares	9 (15.0)	1 (1.7)
Total no. of flares	102	37
With visual manifestations, n (%)^†	15 (14.7)	3 (8.1)
With PMR symptoms, n (%)^†	57 (55.9)	21 (56.8)

GCA giant cell arteritis, IQR interquartile range, PMR polymyalgia rheumatica, TCZ tocilizumab
*Rates were estimated from a Poisson regression model with ongoing treatment (TCZ and prednisone combinations), age, smoking history, and new or relapsing GCA as covariates, and random patient effect
^†Symptoms were after GCA diagnosis. Percentage of flares is out of the total number of flares

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