Test for Polymyalgia

Polymyalgia is a muscle disorder. Sufferers may go to sleep one night feeling fine and wake up in the morning with such muscle pain and stiffness it's difficult to move. If this happens to you, you'll want to find out what's going on as quickly as possible so you can get some relief. Your doctor can use a few simple blood tests to diagnose your condition.

Identification

• Polymyalgia's full name is polymyalgia rheumatica. It's an inflammatory condition that leads to muscle pain and difficulty moving. You'll probably feel it most in your neck, shoulders and hips, and also in your arms and thighs. You may also experience fatigue, weakness and a general sense of not being well. You may lose weight, and you may develop anemia or a low-grade fever. In general, your pain will be worse in the mornings or after long periods of inactivity.

Time Frame

• Curiously, polymyalgia can appear with no warning. Rather than developing gradually, the symptoms often begin suddenly, sometimes literally overnight. In some cases, however, polymyalgia develops more slowly. It seems connected to aging and generally affects older people.

  In most cases, polymyalgia disappears within a year or two even without treatment. However, most patients won't want to wait out the pain without medication.

Diagnosis

• The tests used to diagnose polymyalgia require a blood draw. The first thing your doctor will check is your sedition, or sed, rate. This refers to how fast your red blood cells settle after being placed in a test tube. The faster they settle, the higher your sed rate and the more likely you have inflammation. This can be caused by conditions other than polymyalgia, though, so this test alone can't be used for a diagnosis.

  Your doctor will probably also check the rheumatoid factor (RF) in your blood. RF is often present in people with rheumatoid arthritis, which also causes an elevated sed rate, so checking for it can help distinguish between rheumatoid arthritis and polymyalgia.

  Your doctor may also check the number of red blood cells and platelets in your blood. A high number of platelets and low number of red blood cells can indicate polymyalgia. He may also look for C-reactive protein in your blood. A high level can indicate inflammation.

Further Tests

• About 10 to 20 percent of patients with polymyalgia rheumatica also have a condition called giant cell arteritis, so if you're diagnosed with polymyalgia, your doctor will probably want to do more tests. Giant cell arteritis can lead to headaches, vision changes, a tender scalp and pain when chewing. The only way to diagnose giant cell arteritis is with a biopsy from the scalp artery in your temple.

Treatment

• Your doctor will probably prescribe a corticosteroid, such as prednisone, to treat your polymyalgia. You should feel relief immediately. However, long-term use of steroids can cause several side effects, such as osteoporosis or high blood pressure, so you will want to find the lowest possible dosage that works for you and stop taking them as soon as you can. This should be within two years. If you have giant cell arteritis in addition to polymyalgia, you'll probably need higher doses of corticosteroids to manage your pain.

  You may get some relief from NSAID medications, such as Advil. Regular exercise and a healthy diet may help as well.