Epidemiology of Polymyalgia Rheumatica 2000–2014 and Examination of Incidence and Survival Trends Over 45 Years: A Population‐Based Study

Abstract

Objective To determine time trends in the incidence and survival of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) over a 15 year period in Olmsted County, Minnesota, USA and to examine trends in incidence of PMR in the population by comparing this time period to a previous incidence cohort from the same population base. Methods All cases of incident PMR among Olmsted County, Minnesota residents in 2000-2014 were identified to extend the previous 1970-1999 cohort. Detailed review of all individual medical records was performed. Incidence rates were age and sex adjusted to the US white 2010 population. Survival rates were compared with the expected rates in the population of Minnesota. Results There were 377 incident cases of PMR during the 15 year study period. Of these 64% were female and the mean age at incidence was 74.1 years. The overall age and sex adjusted annual incidence of PMR was 63.9 (95% confidence interval [CI] 57.4, 70.4) per 100,000 population aged ≥50 years. Incidence rates increased with age in both sexes, but incidence fell after age 80 years. There was a slight increase in incidence of PMR in the recent time period compared to 1970-1999 (p=0.063). Mortality among individuals with PMR was not significantly worse than that expected in the general population (standardized mortality ratio: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.57, 0.85). Conclusion The incidence of PMR has increased slightly in the past 15 years compared to previous decades. Survivorship in patients with PMR is not worse than in the general population.

Comorbidity Accrual and Mortality Rate for Patients with Giant-Cell Arteritis and Polymyalgia Rheumatica are Similar Regardless of Glucocorticoid Cumulative Dose: A Longitudinal, Retrospective Study

“…Nevertheless, our ndings showing an increased risk of death in patients who had evidence of CAD, stroke, DM, and HTN at the time of diagnosis of GCA or PMR emphasize the importance of controlling CVD in this patient population. Indeed, our results are in line with recent population-based studies that suggest increased prevalence of CVD as a leading cause of death in GCA and/or PMR [41][42][43][44][45]. Moreover, this is the rst study to demonstrate increased risk of death in patients with PMR as well as GCA with higher comorbidity (CCI and RDCI) score.…”

“…A population-based longitudinal study comparing 12 CVDs in patients with and without GCA and/or PMR did not nd an increased risk of CVD [40]. Previous studies have shown that the mortality rate of patients with GCA [41][42][43] and PMR [44] is similar to the age-matched general population. Nevertheless, our ndings showing an increased risk of death in patients who had evidence of CAD, stroke, DM, and HTN at the time of diagnosis of GCA or PMR emphasize the importance of controlling CVD in this patient population.…”

Impact of age at diagnosis in polymyalgia rheumatica: A retrospective cohort study of 218 patients

“…The retrospective analysis of 42 patients with PMR by Charpentier et al described individuals with PMR of 60 years or younger as a different subset of patients. Sixty-five percent of these patients were men in contrast to recent epidemiological studies reporting 64% of PMR cases occurring in women [10,15]. We can confirm that more patients tended to be male in our PMR ≤60 group.…”

Monitoring and long-term management of giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica

“…Overall survival of patients with GCA and PMR seems to be comparable with that of the general population 155,[175][176][177][178] . By contrast, patients with GCA with vascular complications such as aneurysms or dissection have a much higher mortality than patients with GCA who do not have these complications 31,154 .…”