Definitions of remission of polymyalgia rheumatica from the published literature
| Laboratory | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reference | History | Clinical examination | ESR (mm/1st h) | CRP (mg/dl) | Blood count | Fibrinogen (μmol/l) | Therapy | ||
| Behn et al30 | ACS | <30 | – | – | – | – | |||
| Cantini et al27 | ACS | <40 | <0.5* | – | – | – | |||
| Catanoso et al9 | Absence of systemic symptoms (fever, malaise, anorexia, weight loss), MS, girdles and neck pain and peripheral synovitis | – | <40 | <0.5* | – | – | – | ||
| Chuang et al41 | ACS | Normal laboratory findings | – | ||||||
| Dasgupta et al42 | ≥50% pain reduction (VAS) MS <30 min | – | <20 | – | Hb >12 g/dl | – | – | ||
| Delecoeuillerie et al43 | ACS | – | – | – | – | – | |||
| Feinberg et al44 | Absence of pain on examination | NV | – | – | – | – | |||
| Ferraccioli et al45 | Absence of myalgias | – | NV | NV | – | – | – | ||
| Hutchings et al46 | ≥50% improvement in shoulder and pelvic girdle pain on a VAS, MS ≤30 min | – | ≤30 | ≤1.0 | – | – | – | ||
| Kremers et al31 34 35 | ACS | NV | – | – | – | CS ≤5 mg/day | |||
| Krogsgaard et al47 | No muscular pain, no MS | No muscular tenderness | NV | – | – | NV | Lowest CS possible | ||
| Martinez-Taboada et al48 | ACS | NV | – | – | – | – | |||
| Mertens et al49 | ACS | – | – | – | – | – | |||
| Proven et al36 | ACS | ||||||||
| Salvarani et al26 | ACS | ≤30 | ≤0.5* | – | – | – | |||
| Salvarani et al8 | ACS | NV | – | – | – | – | |||
| Van der Veen et al50 | Discontinuation of prednisone and trial medication | ||||||||
↵* The upper limit of normal is 0.5 mg/dl; for the other studies, no upper limit of normal CRP levels was reported.
–, parameter not mentioned in the definition.
ACS, absence of clinical symptoms (not further specified); CRP, C-reactive protein; CS, corticosteroid dose; ESR, erythrocyte sedimentation rate; Hb, haemoglobin; MS, morning stiffness; NV, normal values; VAS, measured on a visual analogue scale ranging from 0 (best) to 10 (worst) cm.