Inflammatory myopathies in childhood

Abstract

Myositis in childhood can occur under different conditions and with various aetiologies, juvenile dermatomyositis (jDM) being by far the most frequent entity. The exact diagnostic workup and precise assessment of muscular as well as extramuscular involvement of organs in these systemic autoimmune diseases are relevant for specific and adjunct treatment of complications. Many new insights have become available with respect to the pathophysiological concepts as well as modern diagnostic measures and therapeutic approaches. Autoantibody detection in the serum of children with myositis is one of the major novelties that has become widely used and that is indeed helpful for diagnostic and prognostic measures. The pathophysiological relevance of type I interferons in jDM has been studied intensively in the past years. jDM is now seen as an acquired interferonopathy and first therapeutic consequences have been drawn from this pathogenic finding with the use of Janus-kinase inhibitors for severe and not otherwise treatable children.

COVID-19 associated myopathy

“…Cases ranging from mild myositis to fatal rhabdomyolysis have been reported in infections with H1N1 [10], human immunodeficiency virus [11], herpesviruses [12][13][14], enteroviruses, [15][16][17] and many more [18][19][20][21][22]. Viruses of the enterovirus family, namely Coxsackie and echovirus were shown to be at the origin of a presumed intercostal myositis seen in Bornholm disease (also called epidemic pleurodynia or epidemic myalgia) [23][24][25][26]. Hepatitis viruses such as Hepatitis E can cause acute necrotizing myopathy [27].…”