Should I send my patient with previous giant cell arteritis for imaging of the thoracic aorta? A systematic literature review and meta-analysis

Objectives

To review the literature in order to estimate how many previously unknown thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAAs) and thoracic aortic dilatations (TADs) might be detected by systematic, cross-sectional aortic imaging of patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA).

Methods

A systematic literature review was performed using Ovid Medline, Embase and the Cochrane Library. Studies potentially relevant to TAA/TAD were evaluated by...