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Background: Takayasu’s Arteritis (TAK) is a rare granulomatous inflammation of the large vessels. Its incidence has been reported to be 2-3 cases per million people in the United States. To our knowledge an inpatient nationwide study of TAK in the United States has not been conducted to date. The aim was to evaluate the demographic characteristics, reason for admission, procedures, mortality and resource utilization of patients with TAK using a national database. Objectives: The primary goal was to estimate the national inpatient prevalence of admissions involving patients with TAK. Secondary outcomes were top reasons for admission, mortality, morbidity, resource utilization, length of hospital stay (LOS), and total hospitalization charges and costs, adjusted for inflation using the Consumer-Price Index. Methods: All patients with a principal ICD9 diagnosis code for TAK were included using the NIS 2013 and 2014, the largest publically available inpatient database in the US. Controls were 1:1 matched using a propensity score including age, gender, and Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). Multivariate logistic regression models were used to adjust for race, sex, patient zip code, income, CCI, hospital region, location, size and teaching status. Results: Of a total of 2,840 hospital admissions for patients with TAK, 2,680 were propensity-matched to admissions without TAK and included in the study. Mean age was 49 years, 81% were female. The inpatient prevalence of TAK was 4.6/100,000 admissions. After adjusting for confounders, patients with TAK had propensity-matched mortality odds of 1.44 (p=0.43) when compared to patients without TAK. The top reasons for admission were large vessel vasculitis, sepsis secondary to pneumonia and urinary tract infection, carotid artery stenosis/occlusion, and arthralgias. For secondary outcomes, patients with TAK displayed increased odds of stroke, aortic aneurysm, peripheral vascular disease and aortic valvulopathy when compared to patients without TAK. When CCI was evaluated it was noted that all the patients had an index lower than 4 and the great majority lower than 2 which could be related to the young age of this population. Despite the low CCI, these patients had 7.35 days of in-hospital stay which represented 2.1 days more when compared to non-TAK patients. For resource utilization, patients with TAK displayed higher odds of peripheral vascular intervention and arteriography when compared to patients without TAK. Patients with TAK displayed significantly higher adjusted total hospital costs, charges and LOS compared to patients without TAK. Conclusion: The inpatient prevalence was higher than suspected and could be related to the severity of the disease and complications associated with TAK. TAK was associated with an increased risk of stroke, aortic aneurysm, peripheral vascular disease and vascular interventions, but no increase mortality in this group of patients. The costs associated with hospitalization were substantial. References: [1] Watanabe Y, Miyata T, Tanemoto K. Current Clinical Features of New Patients With Takayasu Arteritis Observed From Cross-Country Research in Japan: Age and Sex Specificity. Circulation. 2015;132(18):1701-9. [2] Schmidt J, Kermani TA, Bacani AK, Crowson CS, Cooper LT, Matteson EL, et al. Diagnostic features, treatment, and outcomes of Takayasu arteritis in a US cohort of 126 patients. Mayo Clinic proceedings.2013;88(8):822-30. Disclosure of Interests: None declared

Background Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a large vessel vasculitis that primarily affects the aorta and its branches. Extracranial branches of the carotid artery are frequently affected; however, intracranial involvement in GCA is rare [1]. Objectives To determine the clinical features and outcome of patients with intracranial giant cell arteritis (IC-GCA). Methods A retrospective medical record review was performed to identify all patients with IC-GCA from 1/1996 through 5/2018. Demographic, clinical, laboratory, radiographic, and treatment data at baseline and subsequent follow-up visits were collected. Data was summarized using descriptive statistics. Results The study cohort included 9 patients with IC-GCA (78% male, mean [±SD] age 72.1 [±7.9] years). 8 of 9 patients had positive temporal artery biopsies. One patient with negative biopsy had evidence of large-vessel GCA on thoracic CT angiography. The mean time from onset of GCA to intracranial involvement was 17 months (±38). All patients had neurologic symptoms, 33% (n:3) had a stroke and 22% (n:2) had a transient ischemic attack. IC-GCA was diagnosed by cranial imaging in 8 patients and by autopsy in one. Cranial imaging modalities used included magnetic resonance angiography (n=8), CT angiography (n=2) and cerebral angiography (n=2). Intracranial vasculitis most commonly affected the internal carotid artery 78% (N=7) followed by the, vertebral artery 56% (n=5), posterior cerebral artery 56% (n=5), middle cerebral artery 44% (n=4), anterior cerebral artery 33% (n=3) and posterior inferior cerebral artery 11% (n=1). Stenosis was present in 89%, occlusion in 33%, dilatation in 11%, and wall thickening in 11%. All patients received glucocorticoids. For treatment of intracranial disease, additional agents included: cyclophosphamide (67%), Tocilizumab (22%). Despite treatment, outcomes for patients with IC-GCA were poor. Five of nine patients died during a mean length of follow-up of 2.4 months. Conclusion Although rare, IC-GCA is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. It occurs predominantly in men, presenting with ischemic cerebrovascular events. Current treatment strategies appear to be of limited efficacy for IC-GCA. Reference [1] Salvarani C, Giannini C, Miller DV, Hunder G. Giant cell arteritis: Involvement of intracranial arteries. Arthritis Rheum. 2006;55(6):985-9. Disclosure of Interests None declared