Use of intravenous immunoglobulin in idiopathic inflammatory myopathy

A series of five cases

Abstract

Five cases were reported of idiopathic inflammatory myopaties with heterogeneous presentations in the context of different auto-immune pathologies. These cases show the complexity in the presentation and in the natural history of the inflammatory muscular disease showing the benefit of the immune suppression therapy with steroids and immunoglobulin as inductor of remission.

Results: all patients receiving immunoglobulin showed functional improvement and decrease in serum levels of total CPK at short term.

Conclusions: immunoglobulin IV should be considered in the treatment of inflammatory myopaties.