Lesson of the month
Polymyalgia and low back pain: a common cause not to be missed
N Hopkinson, A A Myint, S Benjamin
Department of
Rheumatology, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals, Castle Lane
East, Bournemouth BH7 7DW
Correspondence to: Dr Hopkinson.
Accepted for publication 30 March 1999
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
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Case reports |
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PATIENT 1
A 65 year old man was admitted with a one month history of
increasingly severe left sided sciatica. He had one previous episode of
low back pain 40 years earlier. Four months before admission, a left
inguinal hernia was repaired and following this he had complained of
pain in the left testicle. His pain had rapidly increased day and night
despite chiropractic treatment, and he complained of anorexia and
weight loss, but no night sweats.
On examination he appeared unwell and was in very severe pain, although with no focal spinal tenderness. All movements of the lumbar spine were reduced, with straight leg raising reduced on the left to 60°, with a positive sciatic stretch test. The left ankle jerk was absent. There were no abnormalities in the heart, lungs or abdomen.
Blood tests showed a high erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) of 91 mm
1st h with an anaemia of chronic
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