Myopathies in the elderly: a hospital-based study

Population in western countries is ageing, and myopathies are likely to be more frequently found in elderly patients. We analyzed the files of 270 consecutive adult patients (age >18 years) with newly diagnosed biopsy-proven myopathy in the 2003-2009 interval. Fifty patients (18%) were aged with more than 70 years. In this group of elderly patients, 50% had inflammatory myopathy, 32% had genetically-determined myopathy, 16% had myopathy of unspecified cause, and 2% had toxic myopathy. When considering muscle weakness and serum creatine kinase activity, there was no statistical difference between elderly patients and younger patients. In contrast, elderly patients more frequently presented with myalgia, inflammatory myopathy, and cancer. Myopathies in the elderly are frequent in developed countries, representing a significant proportion of adult myopathies in our series. Muscle pain was a prominent symptom and inflammatory myopathies, often associated with cancer, were the most frequent cause of myopathy. Clinicians should be aware of the existence of geriatric myopathies, an emerging entity with important implications for management, treatment, and genetic counseling.