Sorry, it looks like you are a diagnostic dunderhead!

Diagnosis: Polymyalgia (Leading to temporal arteritis)

Clinical moral:

Polymyalgia can be a tricky diagnosis to make. It occurs in the elderly and can produce a variety of vague aches and pains easily attributed by the patient – and doctor – to pre-existing osteoarthritis. These patients often suffer multimorbidity and polypharmacy, so it is easy for polymyalgia to be overlooked among all the other issues and symptoms raised. Clues are a significant change, and symptoms focused around the neck and shoulders, markedly worse first thing in the morning. Inflammatory markers are usually elevated and there may be a mild normochromic, normocytic anaemia. Treatment with steroids give a characteristically rapid and dramatic response – and, of course, protects against the associated temporal arteritis.

Stuck on how to proceed with a patient’s presenting symptoms? Help is at hand with Pulse’s fantastic and GP-written new resource: Pulse Reference. It covers all the symptoms which GPs commonly see, giving information on likely diagnoses, pointers to relevant investigations, plus handy tips and red flag warnings. There’s something for everyone, whether you’re feeling a diagnostic genius or dunderhead.

Visit the site now by going to https://pulsereference.com

Stuck on how to proceed with a patient’s presenting symptoms? Help is at hand with Pulse’s fantastic and GP-written new resource: Pulse Reference. It covers all the symptoms which GPs commonly see, giving information on likely diagnoses, pointers to relevant investigations, plus handy tips and red flag warnings. There’s something for everyone, whether you’re feeling a diagnostic genius or dunderhead.

Visit the site now by going to https://pulsereference.com