Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Book

Autoimmune Myopathies

Apoorva Cheeti  1 , Lawrence H. Brent  2 , Sreelakshmi Panginikkod  3
In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan.
.
Affiliations
Free Books & Documents
Book

Autoimmune Myopathies

Apoorva Cheeti et al.
Free Books & Documents

Excerpt

Idiopathic inflammatory myositis (IIM) is classified into four subtypes based on clinical and histopathological features. Polymyositis and dermatomyositis (PM/DM) are two of those subtypes, in addition to immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy and inclusion body myositis. The presence of autoantibodies and inflammatory infiltration in the muscles suggests that idiopathic inflammatory myositis is an autoimmune condition, but the target autoantigens have not yet been identified. Apart from symmetric proximal muscle weakness, polymyositis and dermatomyositis (DM) have several clinical manifestations in common when compared to inclusion body myositis and necrotizing myopathy and can be grouped for discussion.

The most commonly used criteria for PM/DM are Peter/Bohan criteria.

  1. Symmetric proximal muscle weakness

  2. Elevated serum muscle enzymes

  3. Myopathic changes in electromyography (EMG)

  4. Characteristic muscle biopsy abnormalities

  5. Typical rash of dermatomyositis

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure: Apoorva Cheeti declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

Disclosure: Lawrence Brent declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

Disclosure: Sreelakshmi Panginikkod declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.

References

    1. Bohan A, Peter JB. Polymyositis and dermatomyositis (first of two parts). N Engl J Med. 1975 Feb 13;292(7):344-7. - PubMed
    1. Ghirardello A, Borella E, Beggio M, Franceschini F, Fredi M, Doria A. Myositis autoantibodies and clinical phenotypes. Auto Immun Highlights. 2014 Dec;5(3):69-75. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cox NH, Lawrence CM, Langtry JA, Ive FA. Dermatomyositis. Disease associations and an evaluation of screening investigations for malignancy. Arch Dermatol. 1990 Jan;126(1):61-5. - PubMed
    1. Pipitone N, Salvarani C. Treatment of inflammatory myopathies. Expert Rev Clin Immunol. 2018 Jul;14(7):607-621. - PubMed
    1. Dalakas MC. Inflammatory Muscle Diseases. N Engl J Med. 2015 Jul 23;373(4):393-4. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources