Fibromyalgia syndrome: A new paradigm for differential diagnosis and treatment

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a relatively new diagnostic entity that surfaced in the rheumatology literature in the late 20th century. Certain patients experienced widespread aches and pains not confined to any specific muscle or joint. At first it was assumed that these patients had early signs of rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, ankylosing spondylitis, or some other systemic arthritic processes. However, for this particular type of patient, serum laboratory testing, such as sedimentation rate, HBLA, and rheumatoid factor, showed negative results.