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Medications for Temporal Arteritis/Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA)
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Jul 7 8:52am | Replies (353)Comment receiving replies
My artery biopsy was on both sides of my head. As far as corticosteroids, would that be something like prednisolone? My Dr prescribed a 6 day course of prednisolone and it seemed to help but I got a rash on the 2nd day and had to stop taking that med. Another Dr recently prescribed a muscle relaxant med to help the pain in my neck and shoulder which she said was from muscle spasms. That is helping some. Are there tests to check for fibromyalgia? Thanks for your comments.
Replies to "My artery biopsy was on both sides of my head. As far as corticosteroids, would that..."
@ripley I found this information on fibromyalgia by Mayo Clinic. It explains symptoms,causes, treatments, etc.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/fibromyalgia/symptoms-causes/syc-20354780
As far as GCA, oral prednisone tablets are the best way to start. But, if your doctors think it could be muscle stress, then a muscle relaxant is good.
Did you ever get the results of the artery biopsies? What did they show?
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Hi @ripley, pprednisone is a corticosteroid. When I had severe neck pain with GCA and leg pain and stiffness with PMR no amount of exercising, stretching, etc. helped because it's impossible to get blood flow to the affected areas. I don't think Fibromyalgia is easily diagnosed. I remember reading about pain points on both side of the body. Mayo Clinic probably has information posted on fibromyalgia.
The chapter on PMR and GCA in Cecil and Goldman's Textbook of Medicine advises physicians to try a diagnostic trial of steroids if sed rate and CRP are not elevated. If there is not a dramatic clinical response, it suggests pursuing alternate diagnosis - infection, malignancy, connective tissue disorder and hypothyroidism. So I hope that helps.