Clinical relevance of persistently elevated circulating cytokines (tumor necrosis factor α and interleukin‐6) in the long‐term followup of patients with giant cell arteritis

To assess the clinical relevance of increased circulating cytokines in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA) after long-term followup.We performed a cross-sectional evaluation of 54 patients with biopsy-proven GCA prospectively followed for a median of 5.4 years (range 4-10.5 years). GCA-related complications, vascular events, relapses, current prednisone dose, time required to achieve a maintenance prednisone dosage <10 mg/day, cumulated...