How Are Polymyalgia Rheumatica and Giant Cell Arteritis Diagnosed?
No single test is available to definitively diagnose polymyalgia rheumatica. To diagnose the condition, a physician considers the patients medical history, including symptoms that the patient reports, and results of laboratory tests that can rule out other possible diagnoses. The most typical laboratory finding in people with polymyalgia rheumatica is an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, commonly referred to as the sed rate. This test measures how quickly red blood cells fall to the bottom of a test tube of unclotted blood. Rapidly descending cells (an elevated sed rate) indicate inflammation in the body. While the sed rate measurement is a helpful diagnostic tool, it alone does not confirm polymyalgia rheumatica. An abnormal result indicates only that tissue is inflamed, which also is a symptom of many forms of arthritis and/ or other rheumatic diseases. Before making a diagnosis of polymyalgia rheumatica, the doctor may perform additional tests to rule out other conditions, in
