The different susceptibility of different aortic regions to inflammatory stimuli, the heterogeneous cytokine expression in aortic aneurysms, and the fact that almost each GCA patient have received glucocorticoid therapy at the study visit may explain the findings that our control cohort had normal aortic diameter but higher levels of several cytokines, including IP-10, sICAM-1 or IL-8, and that there were no differences of the measured cytokines between the two GCA subgroups. This evidence concerns the gene CXCL8 and temporal arteritis.