Predictors for treatment success and expression of glucocorticoid receptor in giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica.

Objective: Giant cell arteritis (GCA) and polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) generally respond well to treatment with glucocorticoids (GC). We sought to determine the value of clinical, histopathologic, immunohistochemical, and genetic findings and the expression of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) for discriminating between patients who achieve complete remission, or partial remission, or who do not improve with glucocorticoid treatment.

Methods: We examined biopsies of the temporal artery from 60 patients, of whom 27 had GCA, 13 PMR, and 20 arteriosclerosis.