Nail Fold Capillaroscopy in a Cohort of Egyptian Dermatomyositis /Polymyositis Patients

Abstract

Inflammatory myopathies (IMs) are a group of acquired muscle diseases with heterogeneous features occurring both in children and adults. Dermatomyositis (DM), polymyositis (PM), inclusion body myositis, immune mediated necrotizing myopathies, amyopathic dermatomyositis, juvenile dermatomyositis are the main entities comprised in IIMs definition, with difference in clinical, immunopathology, histology, and prognosis. IIMs, especially DM, offer an ideal scenario for the use of NFC due to its active involvement of vascular endothelium that induces a complement-mediated microangiopathy. The current study was done to visualize capillary changes in DM/PM patients, trying to find a specific capillary pattern and its correlation if any- with disease activity in those patients. This study included 20 patients (17 females & 3 males): 12 of them with DM, 5 with PM and 3 with overlap syndrome.. They were diagnosed on base of clinical, laboratory and histopathological findings. Their age range was 16 to 63 years. All patients were subjected to: full medical history and full clinical examination including musculoskeletal examination. Laboratory and nailfold capillaroscopic assessment were done to all patients. Naifold capillaroscopy (NFC) is an in vivo, noninvasive and inexpensive imaging technique that allows direct