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Temporal biopsies to diagnose GCA: What's your experience?

Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) | Last Active: Nov 6, 2023 | Replies (19)
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@sasserb3

I also had one side done, came back negative. Still have mild headache most days. Figure I’m stuck with it. After 15 months of prednisone, very slowly tapers down, I’m on methotrexate for the rest of my life? Debating Zometa for bone density.

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Replies to "I also had one side done, came back negative. Still have mild headache most days. Figure..."
John, Volunteer Mentor | @johnbishop | Nov 5, 2023

Welcome @sasserb3, Sorry you haven't been able to get rid of the headaches even though they are mild. I can't imagine haven't to add that to the other symptoms. This is an older article from 2008 but it sounds like it might be relevant to your symptoms.

"Headaches were more common in biopsy-negative GCA patients: 91% of them presented with headaches, compared to only 40% of non-GCA patients (p=0.005). Thrombo-cytosis was more common in patients with biopsy-negative GCA compared to non-GCA patients (73% and 19%, respectively, p=0.001)."
--- Negative temporal artery biopsies: eventual diagnoses and features of patients with biopsy-negative giant cell arteritis compared to patients without arteritis: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19210879/.

I'm assuming you have been diagnosed with PMR 15 months ago. Were you started on both prednisone and methotrexate?

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