[Amyopathic dermatomyositis]

Abstract

Dermatomyositis is a systemic autoimmune disease which belongs to the group of idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. The disease is rare with an incidence of 0.1-1/100,000 and a prevalence of 1-6/100,000. Women are affected twice as often as men. In some patients the disease presents with dermatologic changes weeks to months before the myopathy arises. It was observed that in some patients the myositis develops much later and sometimes not at all. Therefore, the term of dermatomyositis sine myositis used in earlier literature has been changed to amyopathic dermatomyositis. The most important question is whether the patient needs systemic therapy with its possible side effects yet possibly preventing the appearance of myositis or only local therapy for the skin manifestations is necessary. The goal of this article is to summarize the latest findings in amyopathic dermatomyositis.