Clinical features of polymyalgia rheumatica patients in Japan: Analysis of real-world data from 2015 to 2020

• Published in: Modern rheumatology 2023-12, Vol.34 (1), p.201-207
• Main Authors: Tanaka, Yoshiya, Tanaka, Shinichi, Takahashi, Toshiya, Kato, Naoto
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1439-7595; 1439-7609
• DOI: 10.1093/mr/road026

To assess clinical features in patients with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) in Japan by the International Classification of Disease (ICD)-10 code assignment. Demographics, treatment patterns, and concomitant diseases (identified using ICD-10 code only) in patients who were assigned the PMR ICD-10 code M35.3 at least once between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2020 were aggregated from a nationwide medical information database owned by the Health, Clinic, and Education Information Evaluation Institute. The cumulative number of patients with PMR was 6325 (mean [standard deviation] age, 74.3 [11.4] years; male:female, 1:1.3). Most patients were >50 years (96.5%) with >33% between 70 and 79 years. Glucocorticoids were prescribed in ∼54% of patients within 30 days of PMR code assignment. All other drug types were prescribed in 25% and giant cell arteritis in 1% of patients. During the study period, 4075 patients were newly assigned the PMR code and 62% were prescribed glucocorticoids within 30 days. This is the first retrospective real-world data analysis describing the clinical features of PMR in a large patient population from Japan. Further studies of prevalence, incidence, and clinical features are warranted in patients with PMR.