pegpowell posted about a doctor running a rapid access clinic in Tallaght, Ireland - and this is the abstract of her presentation, Very interesting for those of us with PMR - and who might have GCA ...
Very interesting. Think I’m glad I didn’t know this at diagnosis!!! My GP did ask me, at the time, whether I had been suffering from headaches, but I hadn’t.
But headaches are more likely cranial GCA - PMR is probably related to the LVV form of GCA. It is time it percolated into the awareness that this is a continuum and not black or white PMR/GCA. Mukhtayar at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital told us he screens everyone presenting as PMR for GCA/LVV. He starts well, shame the longterm is less good.
I t's the only thing that I remember was different about him....he did the screening on me under my arms...when it came to my head, he asked if I had ever been in an accident! I laughed and said, are you struggling to find my brain!...no sense of humour......I had the feeling I was a guinea pig and he didn't know what he was doing....no surprise there then!
I've said this before, but I really believe that a significant proportion of people presenting with PMR symptoms could also have subclinical LVV and only if testing were routine would the true numbers be known. I was "lucky" to find an on the ball hospital internist who quickly scheduled a Petscan for me before start of treatment despite zero head symptoms. It turned out I had GCA/LVV as well as PMR.
I know it's a matter of funding for the majority of health systems, though 😕
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.