LETTER
Cytokines in Polymyalgia and Giant Cell Arteritis
Larry M. Greenbaum
15 April 1995 | Volume 122 Issue 8 | Page 634
TO THE EDITOR:
Weyand and colleagues [1] found that patients with polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis have similar cytokine profiles. However, their patients with polymyalgia rheumatica may not be representative of most of these patients. Seventeen tissue samples from 9 different patients were available for analysis. It is unclear whether 17 different temporal artery biopsy specimens were taken from 9 patients or whether different fragments of the same biopsy specimen were analyzed separately for some patients. In most patients with polymyalgia rheumatica, bilateral temporal artery biopsy specimens are not usually analyzed. I wonder whether this group of patients with polymyalgia rheumatica represents a discrete subset of patients with cytokine abnormalities but not the histologic abnormalities of giant cell arteritis.
1. Weyand CM, Hicok KC, Hunder GG, Goronzy JJ. Tissue cytokine patterns in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis. Ann Intern Med. 1994; 121:484-91.
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