polymialgia rheumatica

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the prevalence and type of rheumatic immune-related adverse events (IRAEs) in patients receiving programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) inhibitors. METHODS: This is a single-center prospective observational study, including all cancer patients receiving PD-1 inhibitors between January 2016 and January 2018. RESULTS: During the period analyzed, we evaluated a total of 11 patients. No patient had pre-existing rheumatic or autoimmune disease...

We have evaluated prospectively the prevalence of other autoimmune disorders in outpatient clinic in 3069 consecutive patients with diagnosed chronic autoimmune thyroiditis (AT), with respect to two age- and sex-matched control groups: a) a control group of 1023 subjects, extracted from a random sample of the general population without thyroid disorders; b) 1023 patients with non-toxic multinodular goiter extracted from the same random sample of the general population, with similar iodine intake. The results of our study demonstrate a significant increase of the prevalence of autoimmune disorders in AT patients (with respect to both controls), for the following diseases: chronic autoimmune gastritis (CAG), vitiligo (Vit), rheumatoid arthritis, polymialgia rheumatica (Polym), celiac disease, diabetes, sjogren disease, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, sarcoidosis, alopecia, psoriathic arthritis, systemic sclerosis, and HCV-related cryoglobulinemia...

In particular in (very) old patients other comorbidities may cover symptoms evoked by polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). By describing three different patients we show that the diagnosis PMR should be considered in the elderly when symptoms are atypical for those belonging to the comorbidity. PMR is an invalidating disease that rapidly reacts to prednisone. Doctors delay results in a later start with adequate treatment. Side effects of pain medication and loss of mobility can be prevented by starting early with adequate treatment...

The Authors describe two cases of giant cell arteritis in male and elderly patients 72 and 82 years old. In both cases the early symptoms and signs of disease (headache, fever, weight loss and sedimentation rate raised) were associated to classical histology of temporal arteritis (granulomatous inflammation with giant cells). In case 1 there was impaired vision, while in case 2 coexisted polymialgia rheumatica (pain and stiffness in the muscles of the neck, back and proximal portions of the limbs).