Reply to: what could a new disease activity score for polymyalgia rheumatica do better?

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe We thank Prof. Leeb for his interest in our Review (Camellino, D., Matteson, E. L., Buttgereit, F. & Dejaco, C. Monitoring and long-term

management of giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica. _Nat. Rev. Rheumatol_. 16, 481–495 (2020))1 and for his comments (Leeb, B. F. What could a new disease activity score for

polymyalgia rheumatica do better? _Nat. Rev. Rheumatol_. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41584-020-00550-6 (2020))2. As he points out, the Polymyalgia Rheumatica Activity Score (PMR-AS) is

currently the only validated score for monitoring disease activity in patients with PMR3. Score calculation is straightforward, incorporating standard clinical data that captures disease

features (including pain, stiffness, elevation of the upper limbs, physician’s global assessment and inflammatory indexes) relevant for the evaluation of a patient with PMR. Despite these

advantages, the PMR-AS does not seem to be widely used. On 17 October 2020, we carried out a search of studies in patients with PMR through the Clinicaltrials.gov database. Among 105 studies

retrieved, seven trials explicitly included the PMR-AS among their outcomes. We also analysed the publications included in the 2015 ACR–EULAR recommendations for the management of PMR4.

Among the nine studies on interventions published after 2004 (the year the PMR-AS was published), only one trial reported using the score5. Similarly, a 2020 systematic review from an

OMERACT special interest group6 identified 13 studies using the PMR-AS out of a total of 46. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access

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support REFERENCES * Camellino, D., Matteson, E. L., Buttgereit, F. & Dejaco, C. Monitoring and long-term management of giant cell arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica. _Nat. Rev.

Rheumatol._ 16, 481–495 (2020). Article  CAS  Google Scholar  * Leeb, B. F. What could a new disease activity score for polymyalgia rheumatica do better? _Nat. Rev. Rheumatol._

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41584-020-00550-6 (2020). Article  PubMed  Google Scholar  * Leeb, B. F. & Bird, H. A. A disease activity score for polymyalgia rheumatica. _Ann. Rheum. Dis._

63, 1279–1283 (2004). Article  CAS  Google Scholar  * Dejaco, C. et al. 2015 recommendations for the management of polymyalgia rheumatica: A European League Against Rheumatism/American

College of Rheumatology collaborative initiative. _Ann. Rheum. Dis._ 74, 1799–1807 (2015). Article  CAS  Google Scholar  * Kreiner, F. & Galbo, H. Effect of etanercept in polymyalgia

rheumatica: a randomized controlled trial. _Arthritis Res. Ther._ 12, R176 (2010). Article  Google Scholar  * Twohig, H. et al. Outcomes measured in polymyalgia rheumatica and measurement

properties of instruments considered for the OMERACT core outcome set: a systematic review. _J. Rheumatol._ https://doi.org/10.3899/jrheum.200248 (2020). Article  PubMed  Google Scholar  *

Lindsay, K. et al. The composite DAS Score is impractical to use in daily practice: evidence that physicians use the objective component of the DAS in decision making. _J. Clin. Rheumatol._

15, 223–225 (2009). Article  Google Scholar  * Tugwell, P. et al. OMERACT: An international initiative to improve outcome measurement in rheumatology. _Trials_ 8, 38 (2007). Article  Google

Scholar  * Mackie, S. L. et al. The OMERACT core domain set for outcome measures for clinical trials in polymyalgia rheumatica. _J. Rheumatol._ 44, 1515–1521 (2017). Article  Google Scholar

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Google Scholar  Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Division of Rheumatology, Local Health Trust 3, Genoa, Italy Dario Camellino * Autoimmunology Laboratory,

University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy Dario Camellino * Division of Rheumatology and Division of Epidemiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, MN, USA Eric L. Matteson *

Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany Frank Buttgereit * Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Medical University Graz, Graz,

Austria Christian Dejaco * Department of Rheumatology, Hospital of Brunico (SABES-ASDAA), Bruneck, Italy Christian Dejaco Authors * Dario Camellino View author publications You can also

search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Eric L. Matteson View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Frank Buttgereit View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Christian Dejaco View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING

AUTHOR Correspondence to Christian Dejaco. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS D.C. declares that he has received consultancy and speaker fees from AbbVie, Celgene, Janssen-Cilag,

Lilly, Mylan, Novartis and Sanofi; none of which is related to this manuscript. E.L.M. declares that he is a site investigator for the GiACTA study and a contributor and section editor to

UpToDate. F.B. declares that he has received consultancy and speaker fees and research grants from Horizon, Mundipharma and Roche/Chugai; none of which is related to this manuscript. C.D.

declares that he has received consultancy and speaker fees from AbbVie, BMS, Lilly, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi and UCB and a research grant from Celgene; none of which is related

to this manuscript. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Camellino, D., Matteson, E.L., Buttgereit, F. _et al._ Reply to: What could a new

disease activity score for polymyalgia rheumatica do better?. _Nat Rev Rheumatol_ 17, 185–186 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41584-020-00551-5 Download citation * Published: 30 November

2020 * Issue Date: March 2021 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41584-020-00551-5 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable

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