In medicine, as in advertising, pictures can be worth a thousand words. From arthritis to vasculitis, imaging studies have been variably employed to aid in the diagnosis, treatment, risk stratification and prognostication of patients with rheumatic and musculoskeletal disorders. The same holds true with the idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM), in which the clinical utility is…
Options to escalate treatment for refractory inflammatory myositis and new therapies in the pipeline are discussed.
Albayda et al. describes a North American cohort of patients with dermatomyositis, reporting that small ubiquitin-like modifier activating enzyme (SAE) autoantibodies are clearly associated with this clinical disease. Patients with this clinical phenotype most commonly present with a rash first, followed by muscle involvement.
During ACR Convergence 2021 in early November, the ACR and the ARP honored a group of distinguished individuals who have made significant contributions to rheumatology research, education and patient care. This month, The Rheumatologist profiles the winners of the ARP President’s and Merit Awards. ARP PRESIDENT’S AWARDS The ARP president can choose to honor ACR/ARP…
Dermatomyositis (DM) is an idiopathic inflammatory myopathy involving proximal muscle weakness and skin rash. An associated increased risk of malignancy is well established.1 The most frequent malignancies are related to the ovary, endometrium, lung, gastrointestinal tract, prostate, breast and lymphatics.2 On rare occasions, DM has been reported with certain types of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, specifically cutaneous…
Experts discuss the diagnosis and treatment of myositis-related cardiovascular disease.
The idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) encompass eight categories: 1) dermatomyositis (DM) in adults, 2) juvenile dermatomyositis, 3) amyopathic DM, 4) cancer-associated DM, 5) polymyositis, 6) immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy, 7) inclusion body myositis, and 8) overlap myositis.1 These categories help classify the myopathies based on clinical and histologic features. The incidence of IIM is estimated at…
CHICAGO—At Hot Topics in Myositis, a session at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, three experts discussed new classification criteria for idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) and offered practical primers on overlap myositis conditions and inclusion body myositis (IBM). New Myositis Classification Criteria After a 10-year development process, the new EULAR/ACR Classification Criteria for Adult and Juvenile…
CHICAGO—Held during the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting, the ACR Review Course covered a wide range of topics for rheumatologists—from advances in pain and rheumatic disease management to the intersection of rheumatology and neurology. Session speakers shared insights, as well as state-of-the-art approaches to diagnosis, management and treatment. Inflammatory Myopathies Julie J. Paik, MD, MHS, assistant…
A recent U.K. study assessed the use of the Perrin technique to diagnose chronic fatigue syndrome based on five physical signs of disease. Overall, researchers found the accuracy of diagnosis by allied health professionals was highest when using tests for only two signs: tender coelic plexus and postural/mechanical disturbances of the thoracic spine…