An increased incidence of malignancy in patients with poly/dermatomyositis (PM/DM) has been reported; several points remain unclear: incidence and the predictive factors for the presence of cancer and its prognosis. Aim of the study was to evaluate the frequency of malignancy among myositis patients diagnosed in our Unit in a 35 years follow-up (from 1975 to 2010). We compared epidemiological, ...

An increased incidence of malignancy in patients with poly/dermatomyositis (PM/DM) has been reported; several points remain unclear: incidence and the predictive factors for the presence of cancer and its prognosis. Aim of the study was to evaluate the frequency of malignancy among myositis patients diagnosed in our Unit in a 35 years follow-up (from 1975 to 2010). We compared epidemiological, ...

conclusions based on the findings, in case a child suffers from calf pain or gait disturbances during influenza outbreak, the possibility of bacm should be considered before performing laboratory tests, radiological examinations, or other investigations. introduction identification of the etiology of limping and gait disturbances in children necessitates accurate physical examination and histor...

To date, there are four main groups of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM): polymyositis (PM), dermatomyositis (DM), immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy (IMNM) and sporadic inclusion body myositis; based on clinical presentation and muscle pathology. Nevertheless, important phenotypical differences (either muscular and/or extra-muscular manifestations) within a group persist. In recent ye...

The aim of this study was to investigate HLA class II associations in polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM), and to determine how these associations influence clinical and serological differences. DNA samples were obtained from 225 UK Caucasian idiopathic inflammatory myopathy patients (PM = 117, DM = 108) and compared with 537 randomly selected UK Caucasian controls. All cases had also be...

One of the most important characteristics of systemic autoimmune diseases, including idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM), is the immune response to self-antigens manifested by the production of autoantibodies that recognize a variety of cytoplasmic and nuclear antigens. In the last 40 years, autoantibodies of patients with IIM have been investigated; however, some of the fundamental questi...

Inflammatory myopathies are the largest group of potentially treatable myopathies in children and adults. They constitute a heterogeneous group of disorders that are best classified, on the basis of distinct clinicopathologic features, in four subtypes: dermatomyositis, polymyositis, necrotizing autoimmune myositis, and inclusion-body myositis (throughout this review, I use this term to refer s...

Focal myositis is a rare, benign inflammatory pseudotumor of the skeletal muscle of unknown etiology. In Korea, there is no case report of focal myositis, which is not combined with connective tissue disease. We present an unusual case of focal myositis with ankle contracture, involving more than two muscles. A 26-year-old man visited our clinic complaining of right ankle contracture and leg mu...

BACKGROUND Erythema infectiosum is the most common clinical manifestation of Parvovirus B19 infection although it has also been associated with rheumatologic diseases and various types of systemic vasculitides. Acute hepatitis and benign myositis however are rarely reported in association with Parvovirus B19 infection. CASE PRESENTATION Here we report a 14-year old male, who developed acute h...

BACKGROUND To investigate the association between myositis autoantibodies and clinical subsets of inflammatory myositis in Korean patients. METHODS Immunoprecipitation was performed using the sera of classic polymyositis (PM) (n = 11) and dermatomyositis (DM) (n = 38) patients who met the Bohan and Peter criteria for definite inflammatory myositis. A panel of defined myositis autoantibodies w...