Exercise: an important component of treatment in the idiopathic inflammatory myopathies

Resistive exercise is controversial for patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. This paper provides an update on exercise and clinical assessment in these patients. The few published studies on this topic report unchanged disease activity from a variety of exercise regimens in patients in all stages of disease. Reduced disability was achieved in patients with polymyositis and dermatomyositis. In one study a slightly reduced impairment was reported in patients with inclusion body myositis, while in another study no objective reduction of disability could be detected. An increasing number of valid and reliable outcome measures are available for patients with polymyositis and dermatomyositis, but for patients with inclusion body myositis reliable and sensitive outcome measures are still needed.