The Hôpital Saint-Antoine (Paris) conducted a retrospective study between 1997 and 2020 of 78 patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (myositis).
- Of these, 42% had dermatomyositis, 23% had antisynthetase syndrome, 15% had overlapping myositis, 14% had necrotising myopathy and 5% had inclusion myositis.
- Cardiac involvement was present in 15% of patients at the time of myositis diagnosis.
- A cardiovascular event occurred during the median follow-up of six years in 19% of patients. These were myocardial infarction (6%), non-ischaemic heart failure (4%), admission to intensive care (6%) and myocarditis (3%).
- Having heart disease at diagnosis was associated with an increased risk of developing a cardiovascular event (50% vs. 14%) and a shorter time to occurrence (9 months vs. 7 years).
These results underline the importance of closely monitoring patients with cardiac disease, particularly in the first few months after diagnosis.
