Summary

Aortic complications are an important cause of death in patients with giant-cell arteritis (GCA). Extracranial involvement of large vessels in patients with GCA probably is underdiagnosed. 18-fluoro-deoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) offers good sensitivity for the detection of large vessel involvement in patients with GCA [Blockmans D et al. Arthritis Rheum 2006; Besson FL et al. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 2011]. The objectives of this study were to characterize large vessel involvement using PET in a cohort of patients with GCA, describe the patients who had aortic complications, and identify factors associated with aortic complications.