BACKGROUND Patients with rheumatoid arthritis or polymyositis treated with methotrexate (MTX) develop Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-positive lymphomas more frequently than patients treated with other, equally immunosuppressive regimens. Here we determined whether MTX, in contrast to other commonly used medications for rheumatoid arthritis or polymyositis, is unique in its ability to induce the relea...

Several techniques have been developed to accomplish these objectives. Open thoracotomy allows for the resection or stapling of apical blebs followed by a mechanical pleu-ral abrasion or parietal pleurectomy to create a pleural symphysis and prevent pneumothorax recurrence. Pneumothorax recurrence rates are less than 1%. However, with the significant postoperative morbidity associated with an o...

Six patients developed persistent muscular cramps, aching pain, and fatigability after an influenza-like illness. Electromyography showed myopathic changes, although results of routine laboratory investigations were normal in all but one patient, whose serum creatine kinase concentration was slightly increased. All but one of the patients improved: three were asymptomatic within one to two year...

Objective: To describe the use of large-scale gene expression profiles to distinguish broad categories of myopathy and subtypes of inflammatory myopathies (IM) and to provide insight into the pathogenesis of inclusion body myositis (IBM), polymyositis, and dermatomyositis. Methods: Using Affymetrix GeneChip microarrays, the authors measured the simultaneous expression of approximately 10,000 ge...