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Steroid-reversible parkinsonism as presentation of polymyalgia rheumatica

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Abstract

Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is an inflammatory disorder typically affecting elderly people, characterized by pain and stiffness in the neck and in the shoulder and pelvic girdless with prompt clinical response to low doses of corticosteroids. PMR is closely related to giant cell arteritis (GCA), likely sustained by a “subclinical vasculitis”. Whereas in GCA both the central and peripheral nervous systems may be involved, only a PMR case of global, steroid-reversible dementia has been hitherto described. We report two elderly patients who abruptly developed, as PMR presenting symptom, an akinetic-rigid parkinsonian syndrome that promptly and completely resolved after corticosteroid treatment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unità Operativa di Reumatologia e Medicina Interna, Dipartimento Osteo-Articolare, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Parma, Parma, Italy

    Pieranna Fietta & Paolo Manganelli

  2. Osteo-Articular Department, Rheumatic Disease and Internal Medicine Unit, Hospital of Parma, Via Gramsci 14, 43100, Parma, Italy

    Pieranna Fietta

Authors
  1. Pieranna Fietta
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  2. Paolo Manganelli
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Correspondence to Pieranna Fietta.

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Fietta, P., Manganelli, P. Steroid-reversible parkinsonism as presentation of polymyalgia rheumatica. Clin Rheumatol 25, 564–565 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-005-0151-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-005-0151-8

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