2.1. Study population
We designed a retrospective study recruiting 190 subjects with TA
diagnosed according to the criteria of the American College of
Rheumatology (ACR).11 All TA patients were screened in
Beijing Anzhen Hospital between September 2015 and August 2019. Patients
who had other autoimmune diseases were excluded.154 healthy unrelated
age- and sex-matched controls without any history of chronic disease
were recruited during their physical examinations. Disease activity was
assessed in patients with TA based on the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) criteria proposed by Kerr et al.12 Clinical
classification of TA (I, IIa, IIb, III, IV and V) patients was according
to the Numano criteria by catheterography or computed tomography
angiography (CTA).13,14 Written informed consent was
obtained from all study participants. The study was approved by the
Ethical Committee of Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical
University.