New Large-Vessel Vasculitis Therapies Emerge, but Better Options Still Needed

“There are many similarities between these conditions, and one could think that they belong not only to the same family but possibly to the same syndrome,” he said.

A recent study attempted to pinpoint differences between large-vessel GCA (LV-GCA) and classic GCA (C-GCA). Researchers found that those with LV-GCA tended to be younger, with a longer period of symptoms before being diagnosed and more commonly had a history of polymyalgia rheumatica, but a smaller number of them had cranial symptoms. Patients with LV-GCA had a lower rate of blindness but a higher relapse rate and greater steroid doses, researchers found.⁶

New large-vessel vasculitis biomarkers, which could help with identification and management of the disease, have emerged over the past few years, including pentraxin-3, which has shown high specificity compared to controls and has even shown some ability to differentiate between active disease and disease in remission.⁷

Promising data have also been generated on antiferritin antibodies and antibodies to the 14-3-3 aorta protein, the newest biomarker candidate, which has been seen frequently in patients with different types of LVV and not often seen in controls, Dr. Cimmino said.^8,9

But these biomarkers, he said, “should be studied in the long term to evaluate their prognostic [value].”

Thomas R. Collins is a freelance medical writer based in Florida.

References

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