Polymyalgia rheumatica doesn’t raise risk of mortality: study
Patients'Â slightly higher risk of vascular death might be balanced by a reduced risk of dying from cancer, researchers say
People with polymyalgia rheumatica are unlikely to die prematurely because of their condition, according to the largest study on the subject to date.
UK researchers compared data from a primary care database for nearly 19,000 patients aged over 40 with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) against some 88,000 controls matched for age, sex and geographical area.
Participants with a diagnosis of PMR or PMR with giant cell arteritis were included in the study if they had two scripts for corticosteroids within six months of each other.
The records covered the period 1998-2018 and were linked with death registry data, the authors reported in Arthritis Care and Research.
