TY - JOUR T1 - Visual Complications in Patients with Biopsy-proven Giant Cell Arteritis: A Population-based Study JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol DO - 10.3899/jrheum.151033 SP - jrheum.151033 AU - Muna Saleh AU - Carl Turesson AU - Martin Englund AU - Peter A. Merkel AU - Aladdin J. Mohammad Y1 - 2016/06/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2016/05/26/jrheum.151033.abstract N2 - Objective To study the clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with biopsy-proven giant cell arteritis (GCA) with visual complications, and to evaluate the incidence rate of visual complications in GCA compared to the background population. Methods Data from 840 patients with GCA in the county of Skåne, Sweden, diagnosed between 1997 and 2010, were used for this analysis. Cases with visual complications were identified from a diagnosis registry and confirmed by a review of medical records. The rate of visual complications in patients with GCA was compared with an age- and sex-matched reference population. Results There were 85 patients (10%) who developed ≥ 1 visual complication after the onset of GCA. Of the patients, 18 (21%) developed unilateral or bilateral complete visual loss. The mean age at diagnosis was 78 years (± 7.3); 69% were women. Compared with patients without visual complications, those with visual complication had lower C-reactive protein levels at diagnosis and were less likely to have headache, fever, and palpable abnormal temporal artery. The use of β-adrenergic inhibitors was associated with visual complications. The incidence of visual complications among patients with GCA was 20.9/1000 person-years of followup compared to 6.9/1000 person-years in the reference population, resulting in a rate ratio of 3.0 (95% CI 2.3–3.8). Conclusion Ten percent of patients with GCA developed visual complications, a rate substantially higher than that of the general population. Patients with GCA who had visual complications had lower inflammatory responses and were more likely to have been treated with β-adrenergic inhibitors compared with patients without visual complications. ER -