title: Idiopathic inflammatory myopathy: management and prognosis.
abstract: We are entering an exciting era in our understanding and management of the connective tissue diseases and, in particular, inflammatory myopathy. There is an established array of immunosuppressive regimens available to clinicians; rehabilitative and physical therapeutic interventions are evolving to provide many nonpharmacologic options to complement current therapy. Our ability to quantify [table: see text] the disease burden, using newly developed tools to distinguish myositis disease activity from disease damage, will allow us to measure with greater sensitivity the effects of treatment interventions. These measures, together with the development of international consensus regarding the standardization of many clinical trial design parameters, will enhance our capacity to conduct well-designed, prospective, multicenter studies of established and newly developed therapies. The explosion of immunopathogenetic information, in conjunction with novel biologic agents (Table 4), will afford investigators a treatment menu with multiple therapeutic options. The continuing challenge for the practitioner is the development of a logical, well-studied, multifaceted, and multidisciplinary holistic approach that optimizes the risk: benefit ratio for each individual patient and uses a rational combination of immunomodulatory agents in conjunction with ancillary measures.
authors.affiliation: Division of Rheumatology & Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, S703 Biomedical Science Tower, 3500 Terrace Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA. oddis@msx.dept-med.pitt.edu
authors.forename: Chester V
authors.initials: CV
authors.lastname: Oddis
mesh_terms: D001688:Biological Products / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004358:Drug Therapy; D006801:Humans; D018908:Muscle Weakness / Q000209:etiology; D009220:Myositis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities; D011379:Prognosis; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products