Dalakas Criteria Found Best Way to Classify Inflammatory Myopathies
A comparison of six proposed classification systems for inflammatory myopathies finds those proposed by an NIH neuromuscular specialis tin 2003 to be closest in agreement with the judgments of specialists.
Linklater H, Pipitone N, Rose MR, et al.,
Diagnosis by a specialist is considered the gold standard for classifying inflammatory myopathies. But a comparison of different criteria finds that one proposed in 2003 by Dalakas comes close, say British rheumatologists.
At present, no single set of criteria has gained universal acceptance for classifying the idiopathic myositides (IIMs), polymyositis (PM), and dermatomyositis (DM), note the authors from the rheumatology department at Kings College Hospital in London. However, a comparison of six proposed classification systems among 52 patients with a specialist diagnosis of PM, DM, inclusion body myositis (IBM), and non-inflammatory myopathy, finds that the
Specialists typically use a
• Myopathic muscle weakness (affecting proximal rather than distal muscles, with subacute onset)
• Myopathic electromyographic findings
• High muscle enzymes (up to 50 times normal)
• Muscle-biopsy findings including: primary inflammation, with the CD8/MHC-1 complex and no vacuoles
• Absence of rash or calcinosis.
The current study shows that the
The
