Vasculitus

[Rusty8]

Hi would pro tell me if there is any connections to pmr and vasculitus are they one if the same thing

Thank you

[Celtic PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Rusty, GCA is the most common form of vasculitis - a large vessel vasculitis. PMR is now considered to be somewhere along the vasculitis spectrum.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

PMR and GCA are both forms of vasculitis - inflamed blood vessels. Vasculitis is not always GCA - there are lots of forms of vasculitis, large vessel, medium vessel and small vessel vasculitides.

[granny-b]

Hi,

Read a bit about the vasculitus individual diseases here.

vasculitis.org.uk/about-vas...

As Celtic and PMRpro say they are both vasculitus diseases. (having trouble with my keyboard and can't help the bold type)

[tiasbear]

I remember asking if I could see a vasculitis Dr. and they said I have PMR not vasculitis. Confusing.

[Polywotsit PMRGCAuk team member]

Where PMR "sits" in relation to vasculitis is not yet completely clear. Both GCA and PMR show overproduction of chemicals in the bloodstream called interleukins, but in GCA the prime culprit is IL17, whereas the chief nasty in PMR is IL6. PET scans of PMR patients show signs of large vessel vasculitis in about 25% of patients. These may be the ones with "complex" PMR. But it also means that 75% of PMR patients don't have signs of LVV. So does this mean that they have signs of inflammation in the small blood vessels? The answer is that the studies haven't been done yet so we don't have firm evidence. Dr Sarah Mackie, one of the foremost international researchers on PMR, says it is too soon to say categorically that pmr is a vasculitis. I was kind of disappointed when she told me this because it does seem to stack up rationally and as evidence develops it does seem to be pointing that way. As pmr is a form of inflammatory arthritis, the rheumatologist is the appropriate consultant.