Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0039483 (giant cell arteritis)
 3,204 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) typically manifests as inflammatory pain in the shoulder and/or pelvic girdles in a patient over 50 years of age. This condition was long underrecognized and therefore underdiagnosed. Today, however, overdiagnosis may occur. Physicians must be aware that many conditions may simulate PMR, including diseases that carry a grim prognosis or require urgent treatment. PMR may be the first manifestation of giant cell arteritis, and a painstaking search for other signs is mandatory. PMR may inaugurate other rheumatologic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, RS3PE syndrome, spondyloarthropathy, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), myopathy, vasculitis, and chondrocalcinosis. Finally, PMR may be the first manifestation of an endocrine disorder, a malignancy, or an infection. Failure to respond to glucocorticoid therapy should suggest giant cell arteritis, malignant disease, or infection. Ultrasonography may assist in the diagnosis by showing bilateral subdeltoid bursitis. Glucocorticoids are the mainstay of the treatment of PMR. Although the optimal starting dosage and tapering schedule are not agreed on, a low starting dosage and slow tapering may decrease the relapse rate. Methotrexate is probably useful when glucocorticoid dependency develops. In contrast, TNF-alpha antagonists are probably ineffective.
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PMID:Polymyalgia rheumatica: diagnosis and treatment. 1711 8

Gerontorheumatology deals with the particular features of onset, course and treatment of rheumatic diseases in patients of advanced age. The initial diagnosis of inflammatory rheumatic disease after the age of 60 is hindered by the frequency of non-specific general disease symptoms. The most important gerontorheumatological diseases include rheumatoid arthritis first occurring at advanced age ("late onset rheumatoid arthritis", LORA), rheumatic polymyalgia and giant cell arteritis. Important differential diagnoses in older rheumatology patients are RS3PE syndrome, polyarticular chondrocalcinosis and paraneoplastic rheumatic syndrome. In principle, all specific basic therapeutics, immunosuppressants and biologics can be used for the therapy of these diseases. However, careful dose selection is particularly necessary in the initial phase, taking age-specific limitations in organ function and metabolism into consideration; moreover, close-meshed tolerance tests should be carried out.
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PMID:[Gerontorheumatology. Aspects of diagnosis, course and therapy of inflammatory rheumatic disease in advanced age]. 1955 22