Abstract: Background: The purpose of this study was to learn about the clinical practice of specialists
who care for patients with giant cell arteritis, to verify whether they follow the diagnosis and
treatment recommendations for this disease, and to identify areas for improvement.
Methods: A cross-sectional survey on clinical practice in 2019. The survey was completed by 167
physicians (64% rheumatologists, 27% internal medicine specialists, and 9% other specialists)
who attended a course on updating giant cell arteritis treatment. We compared the clinical
practice collected in the study with the latest recommendations approved by the European
League Against Rheumatism (EULAR).
Results: The physicians surveyed cared for a median of 10 patients (interquartile range 6---30)
with giant cell arteritis during their practice. As a diagnostic method, respondents used tempo-
ral artery biopsy (84%), temporal artery ultrasound (61%) or other imaging techniques (37%). As
first-line therapy, respondents used high-dose glucocorticoids (at least 40 mg of prednisone, or
equivalent, per day) (84%), glucocorticoids with methotrexate (7%) and glucocorticoids with
tocilizumab (5%). The most frequent drugs used for relapse were methotrexate (37%) and
tocilizumab (58%).
Conclusion: Our results indicate that the medical specialists surveyed follow the recent EULAR
recommendations for giant cell arteritis diagnosis and therapy
