Connect
← Return to How hard is it to get on Actemra (Tocilizumab) with PMR?
Discussion
How hard is it to get on Actemra (Tocilizumab) with PMR?
Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Apr 2, 2023 | Replies (51)Comment receiving replies
Is "inflammatory arthritis" the same as "rheumatoid arthritis"? I'm pretty sure there were blood tests for rheumatoid arthritis that were negative.
The weird thing about my inflammation is that it went from zero to a very high level in less than a day. Whatever it is, it came all at once. It definitely has symptoms that span several disease categories, certainly GCA and PMR and probably others. The doctors have only focused on PMR and GCA so far since that seems to explain the majority of it. Overall, it's a mystery.
Tapering should be fairly quick once Actemra is started; I'm super aware of the importance of getting off Prednisone as soon as I can, so starting Actemra and tapering is very urgent to me. I've already been on 60 mg/day of prednisone since March 2.
It feels like my rheumatologist is doodling on this as more than a week has passed since we seriously discussed me getting on Actemra, and several days have passed since he definitely messaged he would write a prescriptions for it, and yet no prescription has appeared in my Kaiser pharmacy medication list, so it's not yet available to me.
And this is even as I have messaged him again this morning about it...
Replies to "Is "inflammatory arthritis" the same as "rheumatoid arthritis"? I'm pretty sure there were blood tests for..."
Connect
"Inflammatory arthritis" is an umbrella term that describes all of the many different types. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is probably the most common type of inflammatory arthritis and gets the most research. RA has many treatment options. Short term treatment of prednisone is used as a bridge to more effective types of treatment.
My understanding about the treatment of RA with long term prednisone is that it isn't done like PMR is treated. Historically, prednisone worked its "miracle" for RA patients but there were too many side effects and prednisone didn't prevent the damage caused by RA.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1756-185X.12823
Current treatment of RA is more "targeted" to specific inflammation pathways.
PMR is sometimes included under the umbrella of inflammatory arthritis although it is thought to be a type of vasculitis. Most of the things I read seem to dodge the question about calling PMR a vasculitis. PMR is described as being "associated" with GCA which is a vasculitis.