About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffYour answers to questions, a general physical exam and the results of tests can help your doctor determine the cause of pain and stiffness.
Exam
Your doctor will conduct an exam to assess your health in general, identify possible causes or rule out certain diseases. He or she may gently move your head and limbs to judge how much your symptoms affect your range of motion.
Blood tests
A nurse or assistant will draw a sample of your blood. This sample will be used for several laboratory tests that your doctor will order.
Some tests will screen for a number of factors, such as viral infections or changes in certain hormone levels, that can rule out certain conditions or lead to a diagnosis other than polymyalgia rheumatica. Other tests will assess the profile of various blood components that can indicate inflammatory activity or chronic disease in your body.
Test results particularly relevant to making a diagnosis of polymyalgia rheumatica include the following:
- Sed rate, or erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), measures the distance red blood cells, or erythrocytes (uh-RITH-roh-sites), fall in a test tube in one hour. The distance indirectly measures the level of inflammation — the farther the red blood cells have descended, the greater the inflammatory response of your immune system. An increased rate occurs because of certain changes to red blood cell properties in response to inflammation.
- C-reactive protein test measures the concentration of C-reactive proteins in your blood. Production of this protein and its release into your bloodstream increase when your immune system initiates an inflammatory response. Therefore, a high concentration of C-reactive protein indicates increased inflammatory activity.
Imaging tests
Ultrasound imaging, which uses sound waves to produce images of soft tissues, may reveal inflammation of tissues within the shoulder and hip joints that can support a diagnosis of polymyalgia rheumatica. These images may also help identify or rule out other causes of your symptoms.
Monitoring for giant cell arteritis
Your doctor will monitor you for signs or symptoms that may indicate the onset of giant cell arteritis. Talk to your doctor immediately if you experience any of the following symptoms:
- New, unusual or persistent headaches
- Jaw pain or tenderness
- Blurred or double vision
- Scalp tenderness
If your doctor suspects a diagnosis of giant cell arteritis, he or she will order a biopsy of the artery in one of your temples. This procedure, performed with local anesthesia, removes a tiny sample of the artery, which is then examined in a laboratory for signs of inflammation.
- Michet CJ, et al. Polymyalgia rheumatica. BMJ. 2008;336:765.
- Unwin B, et al. Polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis. American Family Physician. 2006;74:1547.
- Polymyalgia rheumatica. American College of Rheumatology. http://www.rheumatology.org/practice/clinical/patients/diseases_and_conditions/polymyalgiarheumatica.asp. Accessed April 14, 2010.
- Polymyalgia rheumatica. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual of Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec04/ch033/ch033i.html. Accessed April 6, 2010.
- Salvarani C, et al. Polymyalgia rheumatica and giant-cell arteritis. Lancet. 2008;372:234.
- Giant cell arteritis. American College of Rheumatology. http://www.rheumatology.org/practice/clinical/patients/diseases_and_conditions/giantcellarteritis.asp. Accessed April 15, 2010.
- Glucocorticosteroid-induced osteoporosis. American College of Rheumatology. http://www.rheumatology.org/practice/clinical/patients/diseases_and_conditions/gi-osteoporosis.asp. Accessed April 15, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on