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Editorial
September 20, 2022

Tocilizumab as a Novel Therapy for Steroid-Dependent Polymyalgia Rheumatica

Author Affiliations
  • 1Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, Maryland
JAMA. 2022;328(11):1047-1048. doi:10.1001/jama.2022.11526

In a 1953 report, Bagratuni1 described 7 older patients with symptoms of “generalized aching, especially in the shoulders and cervical region,” combined with fever, weight loss, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and anemia, a syndrome that was likely first reported 2 years earlier by Kersley.2 Bagratuni noted that this entity was similar to rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but without the typical articular manifestations of stiffness, pain, and swelling in the peripheral joints associated with RA. He suggested that the phrase rheumatoid disease be applied to such patients. Four years later, Barber3 first coined the term polymyalgia rheumatica in a description of 12 patients who had symptoms of pain and systemic inflammation, but lacked tender, swollen, or deformed peripheral joints, which are classic features of RA. In this report, Barber recognized the importance of differentiating this novel disease from other inflammatory conditions, such as RA and polymyositis.

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