To investigate the association between the onset of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and prior or persistent infection with Chlamydia pneumoniae or cytomegalovirus (CMV) (both known to infect the vessel wall) enteroviruses (EV) or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
Serum samples were collected from 48 patients with newly-diagnosed PMR and from 22 controls of the same age. The presence of IgG, IgA and IgM antibodies to C. pneumoniae, IgG and IgM antibodies to CMV and EV, and complement fixing antibodies to RSV were analysed.
Clinical symptoms of infection preceding PMR symptoms were associated with the presence of synovitis at the first visit. There were no significant differences in the seroprevalence rates of antibodies to C. pneumoniae, CMV, EV or RSV between PMR patients and controls. IgM antibodies to EV were found in two patients and IgM antibodies to CMV in another two patients.
Serological evidence of an association between newly-diagnosed PMR and prior or chronic infection with C. pneumoniae was not found. IgM antibodies to EV in two patients, consistent with ongoing or recent infection, suggest that EV could represent one of perhaps several microbes which are able to trigger PMR.