Application of 2012 EULAR/ACR criteria for polymyalgia rheumatica to Korean patients previously classified by Chuang and Hunder criteria or Healey criteria.

AIM: To apply 2012 European League Against Rheumatism/American College of Rheumatology (EULAR/ACR) criteria to Korean patients previously classified as polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) by Chuang and Hunder criteria or Healey criteria and investigated whether they might be still reclassified as PMR or not.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 113 previously classified PMR patients. We applied 2012 EULAR/ACR criteria without ultrasonography to PMR patients, and fulfilment required at least 4 points. We evaluated odds ratios (OR) using logistic regression analyses.

RESULTS

The mean age was 61.7 years. Seventy-one patients (62.8%) fulfilled Chuang and Hunder criteria, and 113 patients (100%) met Healey criteria. When we applied 2012 EULAR/ACR criteria, 98 patients fulfilled essential items (≥50 years, bilateral shoulder aching and abnormal C-reactive protein or erythrocyte sedimentation rate), and only 80 patients achieved points ≥4. Eight patients fulfilling the criteria exhibited higher frequencies of all the detailed items than those who did not. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, absence of rheumatoid factor or anti-citrullinated peptide antibodies was the only independent contributing item to the fulfilment of 2012 EULAR/ACR criteria (OR 23.571, 95% CI 6.357-87.407, P < .001). When we reclassified 33 excluded patients, the most common newly classified disease was generalized osteoarthritis (24.2%), followed by osteoporosis with compression fracture (15.2%).

CONCLUSION

Eighty of 113 patients (81.6%) previously classified by Chuang and Hunder criteria or Healey criteria fulfilled 2012 EULAR/ACR criteria for PMR.