Yes was diagnosed in 2012 with PMR. My PMR also usually comes with chronic sore throat, hoarseness and cough. I can’t go into the upper range of my voice. The first time it happened it lasted for months. While the steroid did help the sore throat my voice took months to go back to normal. The next time it happened my voice took 3 years to recover and I believe the only reason it did recover was because I had a cyst in my lumbar spine that caused debilitating pain for which the prescribed me 60 mg of prednisone, which is more prednisone than I’ve ever needed for PMR. It was assumed that I ha d GCA with PMR due to the fact that my jaw will also ache and my scalp gets sore tender spots.

Usually I’m fine starting on 20 mg prednisone and tapering down to 5mg. But I just started into another flare about a month ago and now my voice is gone again. The steroids don’t fix it, but I’ve never been giving 60 mg for PMR like I was before my back surgery to remove a synovial cyst. I feel sure that the megadoses of steroids I was given for my back cleared up my voice. That was last summer.

Now I was almost weaned off of the Prednisone when this flareup started. After doing research I’m not sure that it is PMR with GCA causing my throat and voice issuesat all.

My research has found that Lupus and Rheumatoid arthritis can cause sore throat and hoarseness and that in fact RA is related to PMR and can be mistaken for PMR or at least PMR can lead to RA. The biologic Kevzara treats both RA and PMR because of their similarities. I also had a synovial cyst in my lumbar spine and my kidneys have scarring and decreased filtering causing CKD,
RA or Lupus can cause these things but not PMR. PMR with sore throat and voice changes can mean you also have GCA. Or maybe it’s actually RA.

I know they keep testing me for it as though they still suspect it. I had elevated white blood cell count for two years and red marrow reconversion showed in an MRI that showed the synovial cyst in my spine. These the elevated white blood cells. Kidney damage, a synovial cyst in the spine and these throat/voice issues sound more indicative of RA than of PMR with GCA. The problem is my blood work never comes out positive for RA.