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Edited By: Gregory C. Gardner, M.D.Last updated Friday, January 07, 2005
History
Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) was first described by Bruce (1) in 1888 when he reported on five senior patients with a proximal muscular syndrome he called "senile rheumatic gout."
The syndrome next appeared under the name "humeroscapular periarthrosis" in 1945 and later "anarthritic rheumatoid arthritis." This later term was coined by Bagratuni (2) because he felt that such patients had a forme fruste of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Two of the 50 patients he reported went on to develop RA and 8 others had transient swelling of various joints. He felt that the term anarthritic rheumatoid arthritis was more appropriate than "polymyalgia rheumatica" coined by Barber (3) in 1957. Finally, Healey (4) has furthered the concept of PMR as a systemic articular disease by describing variant forms of PMR which he calls benign synovitis and will be discussed below.
Surgery for arthritis at the University of Washington
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