Kaplan–Meier estimates of infections per level of time-variant current daily and cumulative oral glucocorticoid prednisolone-equivalent dose by time since diagnosis of polymyalgia rheumatica or giant cell arteritis
| Variable | Cumulative probability, % (95% CI)*; time since diagnosis | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Within 1 year | First year | Second year | Third year | After third year | |
| All-cause infections | |||||
| Incident infections, no. (%) | 15 187 (54.2) | 1703 (62.7) | 1015 (62.3) | 807 (61.6) | 3522 (56.3) |
| At 1 year | 18.2 (17.8–18.7) | 18.0 (16.6–19.5) | 18.8 (16.8–20.7) | 18.0 (15.8–20.1) | 18.7 (17.7–19.7) |
| Current daily dose, mg | |||||
| Nonuse | 11.0 (10.4–11.7) | 13.0 (11.0–15.0) | 13.5 (11.0–15.9) | 14.1 (11.4–16.7) | 16.8 (15.6–18.0) |
| >0.0–4.9 | 17.3 (16.4–18.3) | 19.2 (15.8–22.5) | 20.2 (15.2–25.0) | 22.2 (16.6–27.5) | 19.8 (17.0–22.4) |
| 5.0–14.9 | 20.8 (20.0–21.6) | 22.2 (19.2–25.1) | 24.6 (20.5–28.5) | 20.2 (15.4–24.7) | 21.6 (19.1–24.0) |
| 15.0–24.9 | 31.2 (29.1–33.2) | 27.5 (19.6–34.6) | 28.2 (16.8–38.0) | 26.5 (9.9–40.0) | 24.4 (17.3–30.9) |
| ≥25.0 | 35.7 (32.5–38.8) | 26.1 (12.7–37.4) | 28.6 (9.5–43.6) | 47.9 (24.1–64.2) | 42.0 (29.3–52.4) |
| Bacterial infections | |||||
| Incident infections, no. (%) | 3421 (12.2) | 422 (15.5) | 254 (15.6) | 227 (17.3) | 910 (14.5) |
| At 1 year | 2.9 (2.7–3.1) | 3.1 (2.5–3.8) | 3.0 (2.1–3.8) | 3.6 (2.5–4.6) | 4.3 (3.8–4.9) |
| Current daily dose, mg | |||||
| Nonuse | 1.4 (1.2–1.7) | 2.0 (1.2–2.8) | 1.8 (0.9–2.7) | 3.0 (1.7–4.3) | 3.6 (3.0–4.2) |
| >0.0–4.9 | 3.0 (2.6–3.5) | 3.6 (1.9–5.2) | 3.8 (1.5–6.1) | 5.7 (2.5–8.7) | 5.7 (4.1–7.2) |
| 5.0–14.9 | 3.3 (2.9–3.6) | 4.0 (2.6–5.4) | 3.1 (1.4–4.8) | 3.0 (1.1–5.0) | 4.9 (3.6–6.2) |
| 15.0–24.9 | 6.3 (5.1–7.4) | 6.3 (2.0–10.5) | 9.7 (2.6–16.4) | 2.7 (0.0–7.8) | 6.2 (2.4–9.9) |
| ≥25.0 | 7.5 (5.7–9.4) | 4.2 (0.0–9.8) | 8.4 (0.0–18.8) | 10.0 (0.0–22.2) | 15.0 (5.4–23.6) |
| Viral infections | |||||
| Incident infections, no. (%) | 3731 (13.3) | 361 (13.3) | 240 (14.7) | 193 (14.7) | 819 (13.1) |
| At 1 year | 3.9 (3.6–4.1) | 3.3 (2.6–4.0) | 4.1 (3.1–5.1) | 3.8 (2.7–4.9) | 3.3 (2.8–3.8) |
| Current daily dose, mg | |||||
| Nonuse | 2.2 (1.9–2.5) | 2.1 (1.2–2.9) | 3.2 (2.0–4.4) | 3.2 (1.9–4.5) | 2.8 (2.3–3.4) |
| >0.0–4.9 | 3.6 (3.1–4.1) | 4.0 (2.3–5.8) | 5.7 (2.9–8.5) | 3.9 (1.2–6.6) | 2.4 (1.3–3.4) |
| 5.0–14.9 | 4.6 (4.2–5.1) | 4.5 (3.0–6.0) | 4.3 (2.3–6.3) | 4.1 (1.8–6.4) | 4.7 (3.5–6.0) |
| 15.0–24.9 | 7.3 (6.1–8.5) | 5.6 (1.5–9.6) | 5.9 (0.1–11.4) | 2.7 (0.0–7.8) | 9.1 (4.4–13.5) |
| ≥25.0 | 8.4 (6.4–10.3) | 2.2 (0.0–6.3) | 4.2 (0.0–11.8) | 20.0 (0.4–35.7) | 3.5 (0.0–8.3) |
| Parasitic infections | |||||
| Incident infections, no. (%) | 771 (2.8) | 73 (2.7) | 40 (2.5) | 54 (4.1) | 182 (2.9) |
| At 1 year | 1.0 (0.8–1.1) | 0.7 (0.4–1.0) | 1.0 (0.5–1.4) | 1.1 (0.5–1.7) | 0.8 (0.6–1.0) |
| Current daily dose, mg | |||||
| Nonuse | 0.6 (0.4–0.8) | 0.3 (0.0–0.5) | 0.6 (0.1–1.2) | 1.0 (0.3–1.8) | 0.7 (0.4–0.9) |
| >0.0–4.9 | 0.8 (0.6–1.0) | 0.4 (0.0–1.0) | 1.5 (0.0–3.0) | 1.0 (0.0–2.3) | 0.9 (0.2–1.5) |
| 5.0–14.9 | 1.1 (0.9–1.4) | 1.2 (0.4–1.9) | 1.0 (0.0–1.9) | 1.1 (0.0–2.3) | 1.2 (0.5–1.8) |
| 15.0–24.9 | 1.9 (1.3–2.6) | 3.0 (0.1–5.9) | 2.6 (0.0–6.0) | 5.3 (0.0–12.1) | 0.6 (0.0–1.7) |
| ≥25.0 | 2.3 (1.2–3.4) | 0.0 (0.0–0.0) | 0.0 (0.0–0.0) | 0.0 (0.0–0.0) | 1.7 (0.0–5.0) |
| Fungal infections | |||||
| Incident infections, no. (%) | 3890 (13.9) | 351 (12.9) | 226 (13.9) | 177 (13.5) | 772 (12.3) |
| At 1 year | 4.2 (4.0–4.4) | 3.0 (2.3–3.6) | 4.0 (3.0–5.0) | 2.6 (1.7–3.5) | 3.2 (2.8–3.7) |
| Current daily dose, mg | |||||
| Nonuse | 2.3 (2.0–2.6) | 1.7 (1.0–2.5) | 3.2 (2.0–4.5) | 2.2 (1.1–3.3) | 3.0 (2.4–3.5) |
| >0.0–4.9 | 4.1 (3.6–4.7) | 4.0 (2.3–5.7) | 4.2 (1.7–6.6) | 4.2 (1.5–6.9) | 3.1 (1.9–4.3) |
| 5.0–14.9 | 5.0 (4.6–5.5) | 3.8 (2.4–5.2) | 4.8 (2.7–6.8) | 2.1 (0.4–3.7) | 3.7 (2.6–4.8) |
| 15.0–24.9 | 7.8 (6.5–9.0) | 5.4 (1.4–9.3) | 7.1 (0.9–12.9) | 2.7 (0.0–7.8) | 5.0 (1.5–8.3) |
| ≥25.0 | 9.4 (7.3–11.4) | 2.0 (0.0–5.9) | 4.3 (0.0–12.3) | 5.3 (0.0–14.8) | 5.1 (0.0–10.6) |
Note: CI = confidence interval.
↵* Unless stated otherwise.