Incidence and Prevalence of Polymyalgia Rheumatic and Giant Cell Arteritis: A 15-Year Study in a Health Care Management Organization

Jose Maximiliano Martinez P¹, Florencia Beatriz Mollerach², Facundo Vergara², Ignacio Javier Gandino², Marina Scolnik³, Luis J. Catoggio⁴, Javier Rosa² and Enrique R. Soriano², ¹Rheumatology, Internal Medicine Service, Rheumatology Unit, Internal Medicine Service, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Instituto Universitario Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, and Fundacion PM Catoggio, Buenos Aires, Argentina, ²Rheumatology Unit, Internal Medicine Service, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Instituto Universitario Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, and Fundacion PM Catoggio, Buenos Aires, Argentina, ³Rheumatology Section, Rheumatology Unit, Internal Medicine Service, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Instituto Universitario Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, and Fundacion PM Catoggio, Buenos Aires, Argentina, ⁴Rheumatology Unit, Internal Medicine Service, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Instituto Universitario Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, and Fundacion PM Catoggio, Argentina., Buenos Aires, Argentina

Meeting: 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting

Date of first publication: September 28, 2016

Keywords: Epidemiologic methods, giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica

Session Information

Date: Monday, November 14, 2016

Title: Epidemiology and Public Health - Poster II

Session Type: ACR Poster Session B

Session Time: 9:00AM-11:00AM

Background/Purpose: There is scarce information on the epidemiology of polymyalgia rheumatic (PMR) and giant cell arteritis (GCA) in Latin America. To estimate incidence and prevalence rates of PMR and GCA in a large university hospital–based health management organization in South America.

Methods: Global, age-specific, and sex-specific incidence and prevalence rates were calculated for members of a Medical Care Program (HIMCP), age ≥ 50 years. Incidence study followed members with continuous affiliation ≥ 6 months from January 2000 to December 2015 until he/she voluntarily left the HIMCP, PMR or GCA were diagnosed, death, or study finalization. Cases from the Rheumatology Section database, electronic medical records, laboratory database, temporal artery biopsy and pharmacy database were filtered with the 2012 EULAR/ACR criteria for PMR or the ACR 1990 criteria for GCA. Prevalence was calculated on January 1, 2015.

Results: : In the study period 176,558 persons contributed a total of 1,046,620 person-years, of who 825 developed PMR for an overall incidence rate (cases per 100,000 person-years) of 78.8 (95% CI 73.4–84.2), 90.1 (95% CI 82.9–97.2) for women, and 58.9 (95% CI 51.1–66.6) for men. Ninety persons developed GCA for an overall incidence rate of 8.6 (95% CI 6.8–10.4), 11.1 (95% CI 8.5–10.6) for women, and 4.2 (2.2–6.3) for men. On January 1, 2015, 899 prevalent PMR cases and 100 prevalent ACG cases were identified from a denominator population of 80335 HIMCP members. Prevalence rates of PMR (percentage of cases in the sample population) were 11.2 per 1000 (95% CI 10.4–11.9) overall, 12.7 (95% CI 11.8–13.7) for women, and 8.2 (95% CI 7.2–9.3) for men, and prevalence rates of GCA were 1.2 per 1000 (95% CI 1–1.4) overall, 1.5 (95% CI 1.2–1.9) for women, and 6.3 (95% CI 3.4–9.3) for men. Patient’s characteristics and incidence and prevalence rates per gender and different age groups are shown in table 1 and figures 1 and 2 respectively.

Conclusion: This study’s incidence and prevalence rates are in the upper range of the rates found around the world. Our peak incidence age for PMR was in the eighth decade for both sexes and for GCA was in the seventh decades for both sexes.

Disclosure: J. M. Martinez P, None; F. B. Mollerach, None; F. Vergara, None; I. J. Gandino, None; M. Scolnik, None; L. J. Catoggio, None; J. Rosa, None; E. R. Soriano, Abbvie, 2,Pfizer Inc, 3,UCB, 2,Janssen Pharmaceutica Product, L.P., 2,Roche Pharmaceuticals, 2,Bristol-Myers Squibb, 2,Abbvie, 5,Pfizer Inc, 5,UCB, 5,Janssen Pharmaceutica Product, L.P., 5,Roche Pharmaceuticals, 5,Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation, 5,Bristol-Myers Squibb, 5.

To cite this abstract in AMA style:

Martinez P JM, Mollerach FB, Vergara F, Gandino IJ, Scolnik M, Catoggio LJ, Rosa J, Soriano ER. Incidence and Prevalence of Polymyalgia Rheumatic and Giant Cell Arteritis: A 15-Year Study in a Health Care Management Organization [abstract]. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2016; 68 (suppl 10). https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/incidence-and-prevalence-of-polymyalgia-rheumatic-and-giant-cell-arteritis-a-15-year-study-in-a-health-care-management-organization/. Accessed .

« Back to 2016 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting

ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/incidence-and-prevalence-of-polymyalgia-rheumatic-and-giant-cell-arteritis-a-15-year-study-in-a-health-care-management-organization/