Prevalence of avascular necrosis in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies: a single-centre experience

To assess the prevalence of avascular necrosis (AVN) in a large cohort of patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) and define the major associated risk factors.

We retrospectively reviewed the electronic medical records of all patients with a definitive diagnosis of IIM enrolled in our registry between 2003 and 2017, and followed until 2020. Pertinent demographic, clinical, serologic and imaging data were collected. A matched group of patients without AVN was then selected for comparison.

A total of 1680 patients were diagnosed with IIM. Fifty-one patients developed AVN, with an overall prevalence of 3%. Musculoskeletal MRI was available for 1085 patients and AVN was present in 46 patients (43 lower extremities and 3 upper extremities MRI studies), with a relative prevalence of 4.2%. Most patients with AVN were Caucasian females (57%) with a mean (s.d.) age at diagnosis of 44.5 (12.4) years. Sixty-one percent had DM and 29% had PM. The median time from onset of IIM to diagnosis of AVN was 46 months. The hip joint was most commonly involved in 76% of cases, followed by the knee joint in 15% and shoulder joint in 9%. Some 81% of patients were asymptomatic. Established risk factors for AVN were not found to be associated with the development of AVN in IIM patients.

Although mostly asymptomatic and incidental, the overall prevalence of AVN in IIM was 3% and the prevalence by MRI was 4.2%. None of the established risk factors was found to be associated with AVN development.