title: Steroid-reversible parkinsonism as presentation of polymyalgia rheumatica.
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.
authors.affiliation: Unità Operativa di Reumatologia e Medicina Interna, Dipartimento Osteo-Articolare, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Parma, Parma, Italy. farnese15@libero.it
authors.forename: Pieranna
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fietta
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Manganelli
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D013700:Giant Cell Arteritis / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020734:Parkinsonian Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011111:Polymyalgia Rheumatica / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D013256:Steroids / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D013256:Steroids