[A 5-year study of cardiac involvement in polymyositis/dermatomyositis]

Improvement of the diagnosis and new therapeutic opportunities revealed a number of organ affections also in patients with polymyositis and dermatomyositis. One of the prognostically important organ manifestations is affection of the heart. The prospective investigation comprises 15 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of polymyositis (10) or dermatomyositis (5). The investigation, using a number of non-invasive method (ECG, echocardiography, systolic time intervals, 99mTc pyrophosphate scan of the heart muscle), proved in the course of the 60-month investigation an increase of pathological findings from 40% at the onset (6/15) to 6 from 11 surviving patients (three died), i.e. a total of 64.3% of the group. Investigation of the fate of patients with signs of myocardial damage during the active stage of the disease (positive myocardial scan) indicates that in these patients also other signs of cardiac damage develop more frequently and that the general prognosis is more unfavourable. The authors consider therefore cardiac damage in the active stage of the disease a reason for intensive treatment.