Hospitalization for infection in patients treated for giant cell arteritis: A single-centre retrospective study

Introduction. - Infections are associated with morbimortality of patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA). The aim of this work was twofold: the identification of factors predisposing to the risk of infection and the description of patients hospitalized with an infection occurring during the treatment period of CAG.Methods. - A monocentric retrospective study was conducted in GCA patients, comparing patients hospi-talized for infection with patients without infection. The analysis included 21/144 (14.6%) patients with 26 infections (cases) and 42 control matched on sex, age, and diagnosis of GCA. Results. - Both groups were similar except for a higher frequency of seritis in cases (15% vs. 0%, p = 0.03). Relapses of GCA were less common in cases (23.8% vs 50.0%, p = 0.041). Hypogammaglobulinemia was present during infection. More than half of the infections (53.8%) occurred in the first year of follow-up with an average dose of 15 mg/day of corticosteroids. Infections were mainly pulmonary (46.2%) and cutaneous (26.9%). Conclusion. - Factors associated with infectious risk were identified. This preliminary monocentric work will continue with a national multicentre study.(C) 2023 Socie & PRIME;te & PRIME; Nationale Franc, aise de Me & PRIME;decine Interne (SNFMI). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.</span>