Spectrum of Aortic Disease in the Giant Cell Arteritis Population

We report the spectrum of aortic involvement in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA) following review of medical records of 4,006 patients including those with imaging studies. A total of 1,450 patients (36%) had a confirmed diagnosis of GCA. Of these, 974 had aortic imaging. Of the 974 patients with imaging, 435 (45%) had an identified aortopathy. The most common aortopathy was aneurysm/dilation (69%). Overall, an annual aneurysmal growth rate of 1.5 mm/y was calculated. In patients with aneurysm/dilation, aortic dissection occurred in 18 patients (6%), and these patients had a significantly higher aneurysmal growth rate compared with those without dissection (4.5 vs 1.4 mm/y, p = 0.005). The median size of the aorta at the time of dissection was 51 mm, with 7 (39%) occurring with a maximal aortic aneurysm/dilation <50 mm. In conclusion, our findings indicate higher aneurysmal growth rate in GCA compared with that reported for degenerative aortic disease. Moreover, patients who develop dissection had a significantly higher growth rate than those without dissection with over a third of these patients suffering dissection at a caliber <50 mm.