2020 Volume 37 Issue 2 Pages 141-145
The idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) are a group of heterogenous conditions showing immune–mediated muscle damage. Increasing numbers of myositis–specific autoantibodies (MSAs) or myositis–associated autoantibodies (MAAs) have been shown to be associated with a majority of patients with IIMs year after year. It has been known that there are associations between these autoantibodies, especially MSAs, and characteristic clinical features. Anti–mitochondrial antibody (AMA) is a characteristic marker of primary biliary cirrhosis. We previously studied clinical features of IIMs associated with AMA and reported. In the report, we found that IIMs associated with AMA frequently include patients with a clinically chronic disease course, muscle atrophy, cardiopulmonary involvement and granulomatous inflammation. After we reported, several case repots mainly in Japanese literature and four case series in English literature have been reported on clinicopathological features of IIMs associated with AMA. Of the four case series, one is negative, one is partly supportive, and two are supportive to our findings. In this review, we summarized the findings of four case series in English literature in comparison with our previous report. We also discussed the reasons of the differences in findings among reports. Considering growing numbers of literature supporting association between AMAs and characteristic clinical features ; chronic disease course, muscle atrophy, and cardiac involvement, we believe AMA should be added to the growing list of myositis–associated antibodies.
