In line with their research over several decades and the advances they have already spearheaded, Professors Olivier Benveniste and Yves Allenbach (the Inflammatory Myopathies & Innovative Targeted Therapies team at the Center for Research in Myology of the Institute of Myology) have published a review on inflammatory myopathies in the New England Journal of Medicine, in which they advocate:
- the adoption of a clinical-serological classification of myositis, in which autoantibodies (present in around 70 per cent of patients) are no longer a secondary parameter but a key element in establishing the diagnosis of myositis, identifying its type and assessing the prognosis;
- the existence of five main types of myositis: immune-mediated necrotising myopathy, inclusion body myositis, dermatomyositis, antisynthetase syndrome and myositis overlapping with other autoimmune diseases, the latter three being systemic;
- the virtual disappearance of polymyositis, with the majority of cases actually being inclusion body myositis, immune-mediated necrotising myopathy, antisynthetase syndrome or myositis overlapping with other autoimmune diseases;
- the implementation of increasingly personalised treatments, made possible by improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying the various forms of myositis.
Inflammatory Myopathies. Allenbach Y, Benveniste O. N Engl J Med. 2026 May 14;394(19):1925-1938.
