LEARNING ABOUT PRA
| Palindromic Rheumatism, also known as Hench-Rosenberg
syndrome or Hench’s syndrome, was named for Nobel Prize winner Philip S.
Hench and his partner Edward Frank Rosenberg. Mr. Hench (1896-1965)
received his doctorate in medicine from the University of Pittsburgh in
1920. His association with the Mayo Clinic began in 1923 when he became
first an assistant, then, three years later, Head of its Department of
Rheumatic Diseases. It was Philip S Hench and Edward Frank Rosenberg who suggested the term ‘palindromic rheumatism’, meaning ‘repeated course’. It was entered in the international ‘rheuma nomenclature in 1957’. Palidromic rheumatism. A ‘new’, often recurring disease of joints (arthritis, periarthritis, para-arthritis) apparently producing no articular residues - report of thirty-four cases; its relation to «angioneural arthrosis,» «allergic rheumatism,» and rheumatoid arthritis. Archives of Internal Medicine, Chicago, 1944, 73: 293-321. |
| In what we think is simple terms....... Palindromic Rheumatoid Arthritis (PRA) derives its name from the term ‘palindrome’ – a word that is spelled the same forward as backwards (eg kayak, and mum) – the term ‘palindromic’ emphasises how the illness begins and ends in a similar way. |
 Is a rare type of inflammatory arthritis with
distinctive features, Palindromic Rheumatoid Arthritis (PRA) is often
referred to as a syndrome. A syndrome is defined as a collection of
symptoms. |
|
Palindromic Arthritis usually involved one to three
joints. |
|
Attacks of Palindromic Rheumatoid Arthritis (PRA)
start suddenly and last for hours or days before spontaneous remission
occurs. |
|
Attacks recur but with unpredictable frequency.
Some doctors and patients have recognised that patterns begin to
develop. |
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Palindromic Rheumatoid Arthritis (PRA) does not
usually lead to permanent joint damage, unlike rheumatoid arthritis.
This is one of the major differences between the two diseases. |
|
X-rays are normal in patients with Palindromic
Rheumatoid Arthritis (PRA) as joint space narrowing is not present as it
is in rheumatoid arthritis. |
| Palindromic Rheumatoid Arthritis (PRA) is listed as a
rare disease by the Office of Rare Diseases (ORD) of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH). This means that Palindromic rheumatism
syndrome, or a subtype of Palindromic rheumatism syndrome, affects less
than 200,000 people in the US population. Source – National Institutes of Health (NIH) |
| To put it into perspective, there are 2.1 million
people with rheumatoid arthritis in the USA. Reportedly between 105,000
& 262,500 people in the USA have Palindromic Rheumatoid Arthritis (PRA). |
| Men and women are affected equally by Palindromic
Rheumatoid Arthritis (PRA), another difference from rheumatoid arthritis
which is more common among women. Palindromic Rheumatoid Arthritis (PRA)
affects people from 20 years old to 70 years old |