What is the inflammatory condition of muscles that causes a high sedimentation rate and responds to steroids?

The other one besides polymyalgia rheumatica that fits this is dermatomyositis or polymyositis. Fibromyalgia does not raise the sed rate.

Maybe we were having a pop quiz. Hope I didn't fail. :P

Pams right, but if you are just trying to put your finger on a name/condition, is it Fibromyalgia, you are looking for? Many other suggestions above.

High ESR =inflammation. Steroids alleviate inflammation. The causes are too numerous to list, so other tests would have to be run.

My mom has had temporal arteritis and polymyalgia rheumatica, both of which have a lot of inflammation and can be partially diagnosed with the sed rate test. I have a former co-worker whose mom went blind because of untreated temporal arteritis. So these conditions need to be treated as soon as signs develop. I'm sure there are probably other conditions that also have high sed rates.

I'm not sure what you're asking as to the muscle conditions. For some reason, the body has an extreme inflammatory response that results in the medical conditions. My mom is now 96 and hasn't had any issues with that kind of inflammation for 10-15 years.

I thought about this for a moment and knew that any major inflammatory process of muscles could increase ESR and may respond well to steroids. Maybe Pam will be along soon to add more to the discussion.

Googled and found that polymyalgia rheumatica fits that description. Do you know someone with this problem, Gary?