Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Prognosis and management of polymyalgia rheumatica.
  1. J G Jones,
  2. B L Hazleman

    Abstract

    Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is considered to be a benign disease by some, while others think it is a more serious illness which required similar treatment to giant cell arteritis (GCA). The progress of 85 patients with PMR who presented to a district general hospital has been studied in an attempt to study this relationship. Thirty-eight patients had PMR alone, and 14 developed PMR and GCA within 1 month. Five patients presented with GCA and then developed PMR, and 28 patients developed symptoms of GCA after presenting with PMR (PMR leads to GCA). Arteritis and complications developed up to 9 years after the onset of PMR (mean 1 year). Twenty-two patients (26%) developed some cerebral or visual complication. Fifteen of these patients were in the PMR leads to GCA group. All 6 patients with permanent loss of vision were in this group. Seven patients developed complications while on corticosteroids. 97% of patients required corticosteroids for at least 1 year; 32% of patients still required 10 mg of prednisone or more after 1 year. PMR is not a benign disease.

    Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.