The Giant Cell Arteritis Patient Reported Outcome Measure (GCA-PRO) is now available to licence
6th December 2022
The GCA-PRO is a validated outcome measure for use in clinical trials, observation studies and clinical practice. It can also be used as a communication tool between patients and their clinicians, to highlight areas of greatest importance to patients, within face to face or online consultations.
Giant cell arteritis (or GCA) is a condition that can cause pain and swelling in blood vessels. GCA affects arteries, which are the largest of the three types of blood vessels which take oxygenated blood from the heart to different parts of the body.
Giant cell arteritis (GCA) commonly presents in people over the age of 50 with cranial, ocular, and large vessel vasculitis and affects one or two persons per 10,000 people in the UK.
The Outcome Measures in Rheumatology (OMERACT) Large Vessel Vasculitis Working Group initially identified the need for a disease-specific patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) for GCA. Generic PROMs, which can be used across a range of different diseases, may not always involve content specific enough for use in GCA.
The GCA-PRO was designed and developed by researchers at the Centre for Health and Clinical Research, University of the West of England, and Nuffield Department of Population Health (HSRU), University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
The GCA-PRO is a patient reported self-administered questionnaire containing 30 statements which measure the symptoms and impact on health-related quality of life in patients with Giant Cell arteritis. The statements are grouped into 4 domains or “super-items” that measure specific aspects of the impact of disease. A total GCA PRO score can also be calculated.
These domains are:
Acute symptoms (8 items)
Activities of Daily Living (7 items)
Psychological Impact (7 items)
Participation (8 items)
Anyone wishing to use the GCA-PRO for non-commercial research, healthcare and academic studies can do so free-of-charge but must apply for and be granted a licence to do so. Please complete the online application form here. Once your licence is granted, you will receive the GCA-PRO and any support documents you requested via email. If you have any licensing queries or questions about using the GCA-PRO, please contact us via email at healthoutcomes@innovation.ox.ac.uk.
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