The use of positron emission tomography (PET), novel immune and microbiological biomarkers to improve the diagnosis and prognostication of giant cell arteritis

巨细胞动脉炎(GCA)是一种血管炎症状态。诊断病情并预测哪些患者会出现并发症是具有挑战性的。在未确诊的情况下，相当大比例的患者会突然发病，永久性失明。我们的研究旨在通过对65名疑似GCA患者进行为期两年的系列扫描、血液测试和临床回顾，以提高诊断和风险评估。

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is an inflammatory condition of blood vessels. Diagnosing the condition and predicting which patients will develop complications is challenging. Undiagnosed, a significant proportion of patients experience sudden onset, permanent blindness. Our study aims to improve the diagnosis and risk assessment of patients with suspected GCA by following a group of 65 patients for two years with serial scans, blood tests and clinical reviews.