Myositis

Myositis means inflammation of the muscles that you use to move your body. An injury, infection, or autoimmune disease can cause it. Two specific kinds are polymyositis and dermatomyositis. Polymyositis causes muscle weakness, usually in the muscles closest to the trunk of your body. Typically, treatment begins with high doses of corticosteroids to quickly reduce inflammation. However, myositis varies from person to person, so it is important to treat the underlying cause of the disease, be it antibiotics for infections or disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) for autoimmune disease. Our study shows that patients with dermatomyositis and polymyositis have a mortality risk of >10% to die of a cause related to their disease, mostly cancer, especially during the first years after onset of myositis.