A double-blind placebo controlled trial of etanercept in patients with giant cell arteritis and corticosteroid side effects

Open label studies have suggested that tumour necrosis factor (TNF) antagonists led to sustained improvement and corticosteroid sparing effect in patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA). To confirm these observations, we conducted a randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled trial with etanercept in patients with biopsy-proven GCA with side effects secondary to corticosteroids.We randomly assigned patients with GCA to receive etanercept (n =...