PMR to RA?

Posted by cgm @cgm, Sep 24, 2024

Has anyone converted from PMR to RA?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) Support Group.

@dadcue

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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@prestol

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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"Remicade (inflixamab), which keeps my Crohn’s disease in remission, which is also used to treat RA."
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Remicade is a TNF inhibitor and may not work for PMR. I'm not saying Remicade won't work but the research into TNF-inhibitors for the treatment of PMR hasn't been promising.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8953282/
That is the problem when a person has multiple autoimmune disorders --- what one works for one autoimmune disorder might not work for the other autoimmune disorder.

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