Epidemiology of giant-cell arteritis in an Arab population: A 22-year study

Objective: To study the epidemiology of biopsy-proven giant-cell arteritis (GCA) in an Arab population with clinical features suggestive of GCA. Methods: Clinical records of 102 patients who underwent temporal artery biopsy (TAB) at King Khaled Eye Specialist Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from January 1983 to December 2004 were reviewed. Results: Among the 56 men and 46 women who had TAB, 7 (6.8%) had biopsy-proven GCA. The mean (SD) age of the biopsy-positive group (71.7 (8.6) years) was higher than in the biopsy-negative group (65 (9.8) years; p=0.005). None of the untreated patients with a negative TAB developed additional symptoms that are typical of GCA. Conclusion: The small absolute number of biopsy-proven cases of GCA implies a relatively low incidence of GCA in Arab population, confirming previous observations that GCA occurs primarily in the Caucasian population.