Journal
CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RHEUMATOLOGY
Volume 41, Issue 2, Pages 301-308Publisher
CLINICAL & EXPER RHEUMATOLOGY
Keywords
myositis; dystrophy; oedema; magnetic resonance imaging; differential diagnosis
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Muscular MRI can help differentiate between idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) and muscular dystrophies (MD) by identifying different patterns of muscular involvement. Oedema is more common in IIM, while adipose infiltration/substitution and muscular atrophy are more common in MD. Higher oedema scores increase the probability of IIM, while higher atrophy and intramuscular adipose infiltration/substitution scores decrease the probability of IIM.
Objective The differential diagnosis between idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) and muscular dystrophies (MD) may be challenging. We analysed the potential role of muscular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the differential diagnosis between IIM and MD.Methods MRI of patients (91 IIM and 43 MD), studied with a standardised protocol, have been collected. The presence of oedema, muscular atrophy and intramuscular adipose changes were evaluated. Moreover, we computed a composite score for each MRI item to better discriminate between the two diseases.Results Oedema was significantly more prevalent in IIM compared with MD in pelvis muscles (p<0.001), anterior lodge and medial lodges (p=0.044) of the thighs. Adipose infiltration/substitution and muscular atrophy were more prevalent in MD, in particular adipose tissue was prevalent in all the compartments of the thighs (p<0.05), atrophy was prevalent at the thighs and pelvis muscles (p<0.001). The probability of IIM increased with higher oedema score and decreased with higher atrophy and intramuscular adipose infiltration/substitution scores.Conclusion A different distribution of muscular involvement between IIM and MD has been identified. Muscular MRI may be useful in the differential diagnosis, potentially reducing the number of muscular biopsies that may be reserved only for doubtful cases.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available