title: Lower body mass index is associated with a higher risk of giant cell arteritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To characterize the possible association between body mass index (BMI) and risk of giant cell arteritis (GCA).
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a systematic review of observational studies (case-control or cohort study) that (I) reported BMI of patients with GCA prior to the diagnosis of GCA compared with subjects without GCA and (II) provided relative risk (RR), odds ratio (OR) or hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) from its regression analysis. Meta-analysis of the included studies was then performed to estimate the pooled effect using generic variance method of DerSimonian and Laird.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three studies encompassing 141 patients with GCA and 85,736 controls met our eligibility criteria and were included in the data analyses. We demonstrated a statistically significant inverse relationship between BMI and risk of subsequent development of GCA as the risk increased by 8% when BMI was reduced by 1.0 kg/m(2) (pooled OR of 0.92/kg/m(2); 95% CI, 0.88-0.96).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study demonstrated a statistically significant inverse relationship between BMI and risk of subsequent development GCA. The pathophysiologic link behind this negative correlation is not well-characterized and further investigation is required.
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA ; 2 Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand ; 3 Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
authors.forename: Patompong
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ungprasert
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA ; 2 Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand ; 3 Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
authors.forename: Charat
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thongprayoon
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA ; 2 Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand ; 3 Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
authors.forename: Kenneth J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Warrington
keywords: Giant cell arteritis (GCA); body mass index (BMI); epidemiology; meta-analysis; systematic review