High angiopoietin-2 levels associate with arterial inflammation and long-term glucocorticoid requirement in polymyalgia rheumatica.
Rheumatology (Oxford). 2019 Jul 10;:Authors: van Sleen Y, Boots AMH, Abdulahad WH, Bijzet J, Sandovici M, van der Geest KSM, Brouwer EAbstract
OBJECTIVES: PMR frequently co-occurs with GCA. So far, a simple biomarker for detecting concomitant arterial inflammation in PMR patients is lacking. Furthermore, biomarkers predicting disease course in PMR are awaited. We here investigated the diagnostic and prognostic value of acute-phase markers (ESR, CRP, IL-6, serum amyloid A) and angiogenesis markers (VEGF, soluble Tie2, angiopoietin-1, angiopoietin-2) in isolated PMR and PMR/GCA overlap patients.
METHODS: We prospectively included 39 treatment-naïve PMR patients, of whom 10 patients also
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