How do you know you have PMR?

[LRevell]

I was diagnosed with GCA 12/30/2022. I hear people with GCA usually end up getting PMR.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

I hear people with GCA usually end up getting PMR.

Not necessarily - quite a few of us on here didn’t…. and those that have done may well have had it all along but didn’t realise because the higher doses used for GCA masked it, and it only becomes apparent once at lower doses.

PMR cause pain & stiffness around shoulders, hips, knees, sometimes feet and hands see picture… and the fatigue also associated with GCA

PMR areas

[LRevell in reply to DorsetLady]

Than you so much for the information. Since I’m older I’m never sure if it’s normal pain or PMR. The graph helped and I will pay attention to my pain.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to LRevell]

Yes it is a bit difficult to tell at times…

[Gimme in reply to LRevell]

Same here. I do wonder some times if it is just that I am old and decrepit, but I am only 66 (next month) and I compare myself with other people my age and realise that I am much more debilitated and that this is at another level. I've always liked DL's diagram as that describes me perfectly, except that the areas marked as discomfort are actually quite painful at times, especially when I first wake.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Not entirely correct. SOME people diagnosed with GCA had PMR symptoms along with their GCA symptoms, others are diagnosed quickly enough for the pred to mask them as the dose is higher than PMR needs but the symptoms reappear as the dose falls below about 10-15mg per day. And others NEVER have PMR symptoms.

[AtopicGuy]

This 2022 article from the US NIH says:

"About 10 percent of people with polymyalgia rheumatica have giant cell arteritis, and about 50 percent of those with giant call arteritis have polymyalgia rheumatica."

niams.nih.gov/health-topics...

GCA is the more severe and better understood disease of the two. The above statistics are the main reason PMR is believed to have the same underlying cause as GCA: auto-inflammatory vasculitis.