Stéphanie Willems (Fund)

Giant cell arteritis is the most frequent form of vasculitis of medium and large vessels in people over 50 and presents with or without a syndrome called polymyalgia. It touches men more than women and has a prevalence up to 50 out of 100.000 persons over 50. Its pathogenesis remains incompletely understood. The clinical presentation can be local with severe headache, jaw claudication and visual symptoms sometimes leading to permanent visual loss. Systemic features include fever, fatigue, malaise, anorexia and weight loss but also a polymyalgia syndrome with inflammatory pain and stiffness in the shoulder and pelvic region that might be very incapacitating. The latter syndrome might also occur without severe vasculitis complications. Its occurrence at older age is a particular challenge for disease management. Timely diagnosis and appropriate patient management are important to avoid morbidity.

The Fund Stéphanie Willems was created within the King Baudouin Foundation according the will of the late Stéphanie Willems. By launching calls for projects, the Fund aims at stimulating and supporting multidisciplinary research in Belgium in the field of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and giant cell arteritis (GCA) in Belgium. The Fund is launching a first call for projects