Question

Is there any research on the time it takes for GCA to burn out rather than just be suppressed by prednisone?

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Not really since it is different for everyone and there has not been any way of measuring the inflammation or monitoring its disappearance until fairly recently - and even now that is PET/CT which involves a relatively high dose of radiation. That's fine once or twice but you couldn't use it every month or so in a study to see if the inflammation was gone and anyway, on the right dose of pred there is none to be seen. There is no antibody in the blood that has been identified as related to GCA which would allow measurement in that way. Usually though the antibodies remain even once the autoimmune disorder has gone into remission so even that isn't an accurate estimate.

Basically though, autoimmune disorders aren't cured, they merely go into remission so could recur at some later point. The sign it has gone into remission is being able to discontinue pred without recurrence of symptoms. On the forums you will find people for whom that happened in 2 years, one or two in even less, and patients who still need pred after 8 or 10 years, albeit at a low dose, or their symptoms flare.

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I have no studies to share but burning out would be likely to involve damages along the way, including strokes. So, I doubt if there are any studies as ppl wouldn't take such risks against medical advice.