5. CONCLUSION
The present study is the first to assess serum C1q levels in TA patients and evaluate their relationship with disease activity. We found that serum C1q levels were increased in TA patients compared to healthy controls and that TA patients with active disease had higher levels of serum C1q than patients who had inactive disease. Additionally, there were positive correlations between serum C1q levels and traditional inflammatory biomarkers in TA patients. Therefore, our findings show that the serum C1q concentration is a potential inflammatory marker for TA and that the combination of three indicators (C1q, ESR and hs-CRP) increases the sensitivity of disease activity assessment.