Cardiac abnormalities in adult patients with polymyositis or dermatomyositis as assessed by non-invasive modalities

Objectives Cardiac events are a major cause of death in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM). The study objective was in a controlled setting to describe cardiac abnormalities by non-invasive methods in a cohort of patients with polymyositis (PM) or dermatomyositis (DM) and to identify predictors for cardiac dysfunction. Methods In a cross-sectional study, 76 patients with PM/DM and 48 matched healthy controls (HC) were assessed by serum levels of cardiac troponin-I (TnI), electrocardiography, Holter monitoring, echocardiography with tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and quantitative cardiac (99m) technetium pyrophosphate ((99m) Tc-PYP) scintigraphy. Results Compared to HCs, patients with PM/DM more frequently had left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) (12% vs. 0%, P = 0.02) and longer QRS and QTc intervals (P = 0.007 and P < 0.0001, respectively). In multivariate analysis, factors associated with LVDD were age (P = 0.001), disease duration (P = 0.004), presence of myositis specific/associated autoantibodies (P = 0.05), and high cardiac (99m) Tc-PYP uptake (P = 0.006). In multivariate analysis of the pooled data for patients and HCs, a diagnosis of PM/DM (P < 0.0001) was associated with LVDD. Conclusions Patients with PM or DM had an increased prevalence of cardiac abnormalities compared to HCs. LVDD was a common occurrence in PM/DM patients and correlated to disease duration. In addition, the association of LVDD with myositis specific/associated autoantibodies and high cardiac (99m) Tc-PYP uptake supports the notion of underlying autoimmunity and myocardial inflammation in patients with PM/DM. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.