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Many autoimmune disorders "overlap" with PMR. As unfair as it sounds, people can have more than one autoimmune condition. I have PMR in addition to several other conditions.
RA and late onset RA (LORA) are just one type of inflammatory arthritis. There is a whole family of another type of inflammatory arthritis called the spondyloarthritis family.
https://www.arthritis.org/diseases/spondyloarthritis
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There are many conditions both autoimmune and non-autoimmune that can mimic PMR. Many of these conditions respond rapidly to prednisone but only the symptoms respond. Depending on the condition, prednisone might not be the best treatment. See Table 1 in the link below.
https://www.ccjm.org/content/87/9/549
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After seeing my rheumatologist, she says I have seronegative LORA probably overlapping with PMR. Yes, definitely unfair. But one bright spot is that I am already on low-dose Remicade (inflixamab), which keeps my Crohn’s disease in remission, which is also used to treat RA. So that will be the next step if RA symptoms don’t subside.
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Thanks @dadcue for sharing these articles, both of which shed some light on my situation. I don’t think I fit the criteria for any of the spondyloarthritis conditions, but I will ask my doctor. I do have extensive lower back issues, but the neurosurgeon I saw says they are all due to osteoarthritis. When I got an X-ray of my sacroiliac joints and it was normal, my rheumatologist at the time ruled out ankylosing spondylitis. So currently my diagnosis is “inflammatory arthritis”. We’ll see if that gets more specific as time goes by, but I guess the important thing is that they are all treated with similar drugs, none of which involve long-term prednisone.