Table 1.

Characteristics of patients with GCA treated with GC plus adjunct MTX compared to GC alone.

Characteristic (%)	MTX + GC, n = 83	GC alone, n = 83	p
Age at diagnosis, yrs^*	69.4 ± 7.0	70.2 ± 7.1	0.41
Female sex	70 (84)	70 (84)	1.00
Smoking, ever	33 (40)	28/80 (35)	0.36
Diabetes mellitus	7 (8)	5 (6)	0.55
Hypertension	39/80 (49)	41 (49)	0.93
Dyslipidemia	33/82 (40)	39/82 (48)	0.35
Length of followup, yrs^ˠ	4.0 (2.3–6.0)	3.9 (2.3–7.7)	0.43
Time from GCA diagnosis to MTX start/index, weeks^ˠ	39 (13–80)	39 (13–80)	1.00
Initial MTX dose, mg/week^ˠ	13.5 (10.0–15.0)	—	—
Initial prednisone dose, mg/day^*	53.7 ± 14.7	54.3 ± 13.7	0.87
Positive temporal artery biopsy	58 (70)	60 (72)	0.73
Headache	42 (51)	50 (60)	0.21
Jaw claudication	31 (37)	34 (41)	0.63
Temporal artery tenderness	24 (29)	19 (23)	0.40
Vision loss, transient	11 (13)	9 (11)	0.63
Vision loss, permanent	4 (5)	6 (7)	0.51
Polymyalgia rheumatica	30 (36)	23 (28)	0.24
Arm claudication	27 (33)	19 (23)	0.17
Leg claudication	7 (8)	5 (6)	0.56
ESR, mm/h^*	76.4 ± 37.1	66.5 ± 33.3	0.17
CRP, mg/l^*	61.3 ± 47.4	72.4 ± 75.1	0.96
Creatinine, mg/dl^*	0.9 ± 0.3	0.9 (0.2)	0.43
Albumin, g/dl^*	3.4 ± 0.6	3.3 (0.5)	0.46
AST, U/l^*	25.9 ± 15.0	25.9 (22.0)	0.22

Data are n (%) unless otherwise indicated.
↵* Mean ± SD.
↵ˠ median (interquartile range). GCA: giant cell arteritis; GC: glucocorticoid; MTX: methotrexate; AST: aspartate aminotransferase; ESR: erythrocyte sedimentation rate; CRP: C-reactive protein.