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. 2019 Nov;60(5):586-590.
doi: 10.1002/mus.26679. Epub 2019 Aug 30.

Benign acute viral myositis in African migrants: A clinical, serological, and pathological study

Elia Pancheri  1 , Massimiliano Lanzafame  2 , Alberto Zamò  3 , Andrea Angheben  4 , Silvia Sartoris  5 , Antonella Zorzi  6 , Marzia Boaretti  6 , Caterina Signoretto  6 , Valeria Guglielmi  1 , Sergio Ferrari  1 , Paola Tonin  1 , Gaetano Vattemi  1
Affiliations

Benign acute viral myositis in African migrants: A clinical, serological, and pathological study

Elia Pancheri et al. Muscle Nerve. 2019 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Several viruses have been described as causes of acquired inflammatory myopathies; however, the mechanisms by which they cause muscle disease are still unclear. The aim of this study was to describe the laboratory features of benign acute myositis in a small case series.

Methods: A detailed pathological and serological analysis was performed in five African migrants who developed an acute viral myositis complicated by rhabdomyolysis.

Results: Muscle biopsies clearly documented an inflammatory myopathy with histological features similar to polymyositis including CD8+ T cells surrounding and invading nonnecrotic muscle fibers, CD68+ macrophages and major histocompatibility complex class I antigen upregulation. In addition, positivity for myositis-specific antibodies (MSA), in particular anti-aminoacyl tRNA synthetases, was found in the serum of two patients.

Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that T-cell mediated injury occurs in muscle of patients with acute viral myositis, and that MSA may be present in the serum of these patients.

Keywords: Coxsackie virus; inflammatory myopathies; myositis-specific antibodies; polymyositis; rhabdomyolysis; viral myositis.

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References

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