Concise report
The relative prevalence of dermatomyositis and polymyositis in Europe exhibits a latitudinal gradient
G J D Hengstmana, W J van Venrooijb, J Vencovskyc, H M Moutsopoulosd, B G M van Engelena
a Neuromuscular Centre
Nijmegen, Institute of Neurology, University Hospital Nijmegen, PO Box
9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, the Netherlands, b Department of
Biochemistry, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, c Institute of
Rheumatology, Prague, Czech Republic, d Department
of Pathophysiology, School of Medicine, National University of Athens,
Athens, Greece
Correspondence to: Dr van Engelen
Accepted for publication 12 October 1999
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
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Introduction |
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The idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are a heterogeneous group of systemic diseases that include the more familiar disease entities of dermatomyositis (DM), polymyositis (PM), and inclusion body myositis (IBM).1 The aetiology of IIM is unknown. DM and PM are commonly regarded as autoimmune diseases,1 while the immune response in IBM is thought to be secondary to degenerative changes in skeletal muscle tissue.2 The autoimmunity in DM and PM is most probably a result of the interaction of environmental and host factors.1 3 Environmental risk factors are suggested by the fact that several viruses (for example, picorna, influenza, paramyxo) have been associated directly or indirectly with IIM, by unconfirmed reports of coxsackie B virus antibodies in children with DM, and by the fact that retroviruses are associated with an inflammatory myopathy pathologically indistinguishable from PM.1 3 Host factors include sex and polygenetic predisposition.1 3
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Methods and Results |
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As part of a study of environmental and genetic risk
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