Lisa Christopher-Stine, MD, MPH, discussed the latest findings on myositis and its subtypes, including insights into antibodies linked to cancer and treatments for these patients.
Polymyositis-Dermatomyositis Tied to Arrhythmias in Young, Middle-Aged Adults
(Reuters Health)—Young and middle-aged adults with polymyositis-dermatomyositis are more likely to have arrhythmias in general, and supraventricular arrhythmias in particular, than matched controls without these rare rheumatic conditions, a U.S. study suggests.1 Researchers examined retrospective data on adults hospitalized between 2016 and 2018, including 32,085 patients with polymyositis-dermatomyositis and 320,850 age-matched controls. Overall, both women…
Myositis-Specific Antibodies Identified
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…
Autoantibodies in Autoimmune Myopathy
In recent years, scientists and clinicians have learned a great deal about autoantibodies occurring in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs). These new discoveries have reshaped our understanding of distinct clinical phenotypes in IIMs. Scientists continue to learn more about how these autoantibodies shape pathophysiology, diagnosis, disease monitoring, prognosis and optimum treatment. Moving forward, these autoantibodies will…
Myositis AutoantibodiesTriggered by Statins
CHICAGO—On a Saturday morning in Chicago, Chester V. Oddis, MD, director of the Myositis Center at the University of Pittsburgh, explained to a crowded room of about 500 rheumatologists attending the ACR’s State-of-the-Art Clinical Symposium in April how best to use myositis autoantibodies in clinical care. He began with an overview of the different types of…
Inflammatory Myopathies Difficult to Diagnose, Treat
Without a single set of diagnostic criteria for identifying polymyositis, dermatomyositis, or myositis and scant evidence-based therapeutic guidelines, these rare muscle diseases can be hard to manage
Myositis Mysteries
Why isn’t my myositis patient getting better?