{"id":2897,"date":"2026-04-16T20:16:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/?p=2897"},"modified":"2026-04-16T20:20:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:20:55","slug":"%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%b9%d8%aa%d9%84%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d8%b6%d9%84%d9%8a%d8%a9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/?p=2897&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Myopathies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>What are myopathies?<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Myopathy is the medical term for muscle disease. It is a general term meaning muscle inflammation. Myositis includes the following diseases: dermatomyositis (DM), polymyositis (PM), immune-mediated myositis, and juvenile myositis.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Who gets myopathies?<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Inflammatory myopathies are considered rare diseases, with approximately one person per 100,000 developing polymyositis and dermatomyositis. All age groups are affected by these diseases, with the highest rates between ages 5-10 in children and between 40-50 in adults. Women are affected approximately twice as often as men, and all ethnic groups can be affected.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>What causes myopathies?<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">We do not know what causes myositis. However, because myositis has many forms, it likely has many causes. Some scientists believe that myositis occurs when a person with a certain genetic background is exposed to specific chemicals, viruses, or other infectious agents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>What are the symptoms of myopathies?<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Symptoms of myositis include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Difficulty climbing stairs or raising the arm.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Difficulty swallowing or breathing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Muscle pain that does not go away after several weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Markedly elevated muscle enzymes on blood tests (CPK).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Problems arising from sitting in a chair for a long time.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Feeling tired after standing or walking.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>How are myopathies diagnosed?<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Diagnostic criteria for dermatomyositis (DM) and polymyositis (PM) include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">History and physical examination findings of muscle weakness in the hip and\/or shoulder area.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Elevated muscle enzyme levels in laboratory tests.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Evidence of abnormal muscle activity on electromyography (EMG).<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Presence of inflammation on muscle biopsy.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Presence of the characteristic rash in cases of dermatomyositis.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>What is the relationship between dermatomyositis and cancer?<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Because dermatomyositis is associated with cancer, all adult patients with this type of myositis should be evaluated for cancer. Most relevant medical authorities recommend simply screening for the most common cancers based on the patient&#8217;s age and gender.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ds-markdown-paragraph\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>How are myopathies treated?<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Corticosteroids are the optimal treatment for the majority of patients with myositis. The most common medication in this class is oral prednisone, but forms of corticosteroids can be given intravenously to rapidly control the disease during acute inflammation. Reports indicate that immunosuppressive medications such as methotrexate, azathioprine, cyclosporine, cyclophosphamide, or chlorambucil have proven effective in treating patients with myositis resistant to prednisone or those unable to tolerate prednisone without relapse. For patients with myositis resistant to these standard treatments, intravenous immunoglobulin G has been shown to have a beneficial effect on muscle disease. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) consists of antibodies taken from healthy donors at blood banks and appears to work by counteracting the abnormal antibodies produced by myositis patients.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are myopathies?<br \/>\nMyopathy is the medical term for muscle disease. It is a general term meaning muscle inflammation. Myositis includes the following diseases: dermatomyositis (DM), polymyositis (PM), immune-mediated myositis, and juvenile myositis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rheumatic-diseases"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Myopathies.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2897"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2899,"href":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2897\/revisions\/2899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr-yaser.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}