Inflammatory Muscle Disease: A New Landscape

Publication date: Available online 22 March 2017 Source:Joint Bone Spine Author(s): Alain Meyer, Béatrice Lannes, Joëlle Goetz, Andoni Echaniz-Laguna, Dan Lipsker, Laurent Arnaud, Thierry Martin, Jacques Eric Gottenberg, Bernard Geny, Jean Sibilia Greater accuracy in clinical descriptions combined with advances in muscle histology and immunology have established that inflammatory muscle diseases (IMDs) resemble inflammatory joint diseases in that they constitute a highly heterogeneous group of conditions. The topographic distribution, severity, and tempo of onset vary widely, and the histological findings distinguish at least five different profiles, which may reflect different pathophysiological processes. Most IMDs are connective tissue diseases that can affect multiple organs, among which the most common targets are the skin, joints, and lungs. The extramuscular manifestations may antedate the muscular involvement and should therefore suggest a diagnosis of IMD even in the absence of obvious muscle disease. About 20 different autoantibodies have been identified in patients with IMD. Some are mutually exclusive and associated with specific combinations of clinical manifestations. Following the model of antisynthetase syndrome, about 10 syndromes associated with autoantibodies specific of IMD have been identified. Thus, polymyositis is now emerging as a rare entity that is often mistaken for more recently described patterns of IMD. No consensus exists to date a...
Source: Joint Bone Spine - Category: Orthopaedics Source Type: research