Dilatation of the thoracic aorta and increased arterial stiffness is common in patients with giant cell arteritis - preliminary findings from a cardiac magnetic resonance study

Table 1 CMR findings in GCA patients.

Measurement	All patients n = 49	Male n = 14	Female n = 35	p-value*
Ascending aorta, mm	35±5	35±4	34±6	0.27
Corrected ascending aorta, mm/m²	20±5	18±1	20±1	0.22
Aortic Arch, mm	25±3	27±2	24±3	0.02
Descending Aorta, mm	28±3	29±3	28±4	0.03
Corrected descending aorta, mm/m²	16±2	15±1	16±2	0.42
Dilated AsAo^#, n (%)	9 (18)	0 (0)	9 (26)	0.03
Dilated DsAo^#, n (%)	30 (61)	4 (30)	26 (74)	<0.01
Dilated AsAo or DsAo^#, n (%)	30 (61)	4 (30)	26 (74)	<0.01
Aortic distensibility, 10^-3mmHg^-1, median (IQR)	0.9 (0.8)	0.7 (1.0)	0.9 (0.6)	0.71
Pulse wave velocity, m/s	11±3	11±4	11±3	0.90

Data presented as mean±SD unless otherwise stated. *Appropriate parametric/non-parametric tests applied between male and female groups after normality assessments. ^#Corrected aortic measurements plotted on extrapolated age/sex nomograms [Davis et al. 2014. JCMR. 16(1):9].

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