Possible giant cell arteritis symptoms are common in newly diagnosed patients with Polymyalgia Rheumatica: results from an incident primary care PMR cohort

Autor: Sara Muller, James A. Prior, Samantha L. Hider, Christian D Mallen, Toby Helliwell, Rebecca Whittle, William Masson
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: BMC Rheumatology, Vol 1, Iss 1, Pp 1-5 (2017)
BMC rheumatology
ISSN: 2520-1026
Popis: Background To examine the frequency of possible giant cell arteritis (GCA) symptoms (including headache, temporal/scalp tenderness, jaw claudication and visual symptoms) in newly diagnosed polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) patients in UK primary care. Methods The PMR Cohort Study is a primary care inception cohort of 652 adults with newly diagnosed polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). At baseline, participants were asked to report (yes/no) on the presence of seven potential GCA symptoms: sudden headache, tender scalp, disturbed/double vision, jaw claudication, fever, appetite loss and unintentional weight loss. Results Of the 652 patients, 405 (62%) were female, with a mean (SD) age of 72.5 (8.9) years. Sudden headache was the commonest symptom in 161 patients (24.7%). The least commonly reported symptom was jaw claudication in 66 (10.1%) patients. Females had a higher prevalence of headache, tender scalp and jaw pain. Sudden onset headache and fever were commoner in younger patients, (OR (95% CI) per 10 year age band increase: headache 0.76 (0.62–0.92), fever 0.63 (0.49, 0.79)). In those reporting sudden headache (n = 161), 19.9% (n = 32) also reported double/disturbed vision and a tender scalp, whilst 11.8% (n = 19) reported double/disturbed vision and jaw pain. Conclusion The data suggests possible GCA symptoms are common in PMR patients, particularly sudden headache, appetite loss and weight loss. These symptomatic PMR patients warrant careful monitoring and consideration for early referral to specialist services. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s41927-017-0007-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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