Circadian variations in clinical symptoms and concentrations of inflammatory cytokines, melatonin, and cortisol in polymyalgia rheumatica before and during prednisolone treatment: a controlled, observational, clinical experimental study

Table 1 Subject characteristics

	Patients with PMR (n = 10)	Control subjects (n = 7)
Sex, female/male	6/4	4/3
Age, years	76 ± 2.2	71 ± 1.6
BMI, kg∙m⁻²	24.0 ± 1.3	26.7 ± 1.2
Blood pressure (systolic/diastolic, mmHg)
Before treatment	143 ± 7/88 ± 6	141 ± 10/86 ± 6
After treatment	147 ± 10/81 ± 3	144 ± 9/85 ± 6
ESR, mm/h
Before treatment	72 ± 8^a	10 ± 2
After treatment	21 ± 4^b	8 ± 1
CRP, mg/L
Before treatment	56 ± 7^a	3 ± 1
After treatment	7 ± 2^b	1 ± 0.3
PMR-AS
Before treatment	38 ± 2^a	0.2 ± 0.1
After treatment	5 ± 1^b	0 ± 0

Abbreviations: BMI body mass index, CRP C-reactive protein, ESR erythrocyte sedimentation rate, PMR polymyalgia rheumatica, PMR-AS polymyalgia rheumatica activity score [18]
Values are mean ± SEM. Subjects were studied before treatment and during the 14th day of prednisolone treatment (20 mg/day)
^a Patients vs control subjects, 2P < 0.05
^b After vs before treatment, 2P < 0.05

ISSN: 1478-6362