Methotrexate treatment in the management of giant cell arteritis.

Eleven newly-diagnosed GCA patients were included in a prospective open study and treated with high initial prednisone doses, a quick-tapering CS schedule and weekly oral MTX for two years. It took a mean of 14 weeks to reach a 10 mg/day dose of prednisone and 29.8 weeks until steroid withdrawal. The mean cumulative dose of prednisone was 3.4 g. Two patients relapsed and five developed CS side effects. No serious MTX side effects were observed. Our results suggest that MTX is safe and could be useful in the therapy of GCA.