ArticleHeliyon2023
Incidence of giant cell arteritis is associated with COVID-19 prevalence: A population-level retrospective study.
Article in Heliyon, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review
- Takayasu Arteritis in a Middle-aged Woman Following Prolonged Subsequent Fever after COVID-19 Infection: An Early Diagnosis Using Contrast-enhanced CT.Internal medicine (Tokyo, Japan) · 2026Article
- The Set up and the Triggers: An Update on the Risk Factors for Giant Cell Arteritis.Current neurology and neuroscience reports · 2024Review
- Infective agents and polymyalgia rheumatica: key discussion points emerging from a narrative review of published literature.Reumatologia · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Following the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was observed that giant cell arteritis (GCA) diagnoses increased at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases (RNHRD) in Bath, UK. This finding may support the viral aetiology hypothesis of GCA. Better understanding of the causes of GCA may help improve diagnostic and treatment strategies leading to better outcomes for patients. Objectives: The study aims to estimate the local incidence of GCA during the early COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021) and compare it to pre-pandemic (2015-2019) data. This study will also evaluate the temporal relationship between COVID-19 infections and GCA diagnoses. Methods: Annual incidence rates of GCA were calculated between 2015 and 2021. Local COVID-19 prevalence was estimated by measuring the number of hospital beds taken up by COVID-19 positive patients. Poisson statistics were used to compare the annual mean incidence of GCA between 2019 and 2020, and Granger causality tested the temporal relationship between COVID-19 prevalence and GCA incidence. Results: There were 60 (95% confidence interval [CI] 46-77) GCA diagnoses made in 2020 compared to 28 (CI 19-41) in 2019 ( Conclusion: The incidence of GCA in Bath was significantly increased in 2020 and 2021 compared to 2015-2019. The lag period between peaks was 40-45 days, suggesting that the COVID-19 virus may be a precipitating factor for GCA. More work is currently underway to interrogate the causal relationship between these two diseases.
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Registered trials
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