Group Announcements

Our team has published a national survey of Australian rheumatologists examining how polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is diagnosed and managed across the country. Led by rheumatologist Dr Jessica Leung, the article titled "Experience of Australian rheumatologists managing polymyalgia rheumatica: results from a national survey" was published in the Internal Medicine Journal. Dr Leung's study found considerable variation in clinical practice, including differences in diagnostic app

Congratulations to Dr Claire Owen on being awarded the Australian Rheumatology Association (ARA) Research Fund / New Zealand Rheumatology Association Philip Robinson Memorial Award, presented at the ARA Annual Scientific Meeting on the Gold Coast. The project will use advanced proteomics technology to search for a unique "protein fingerprint" of polymyalgia rheumatica in blood samples. PMR remains difficult to diagnose, and there are currently no definitive blood tests availa

Two members of the AustPMRGCA group have been awarded highly competitive National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Postgraduate Scholarships. Saskia Rowson's PhD research will investigate how exercise can complement the management of polymyalgia rheumatica, while Dr Victor Yang's PhD focuses on identifying protein signatures in the blood of people with PMR. These scholarships provide support for the next generation of PMR research and reflect growing national recog

A new international review involving Dr Claire Owen and collaborators across Europe has explored the lived experiences of people with polymyalgia rheumatica. The study found that many patients experience delays in diagnosis, uncertainty about their condition, and challenges balancing symptom relief against the side effects of long-term steroid treatment. Importantly, researchers also identified differences between how patients describe their experiences and the language commo

Researchers from the AustPMRGCA group have demonstrated that specialised PET/CT imaging can identify characteristic PMR patterns even in patients whose symptoms do not fit traditional diagnostic criteria. The paper, titled "Polymyalgia rheumatica patients presenting with atypical clinical features still exhibit characteristic 18F-FDG PET/CT findings", was published in the European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. The study also showed that an artificial inte