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Serum levels of interferon α do not correlate with disease activity in patients with dermatomyositis/polymyositis
  1. Petra Król1,
  2. Olga Kryštůfková2,
  3. Markéta Polanská2,
  4. Heřman Mann2,
  5. Martin Klein2,
  6. Ondřej Beran3,
  7. Jiří Vencovský2
  1. 1Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, First Faculty of Medicine and General Teaching Hospital, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
  2. 2Institute of Rheumatology, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
  3. 3Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague and University Hospital Bulovka, Prague, Czech Republic
  1. Correspondence to Jiří Vencovský, Institute of Rheumatology, First Medical Faculty, Charles University, Na Slupi 4, 128 50, Prague, Czech Republic; venc{at}revma.cz

https://doi.org/10.1136/ard.2010.141051

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    Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies include three major diseases: dermatomyositis (DM), polymyositis (PM) and inclusion body myositis.1,–,3 The ethiopathogenesis of these entities is still not well understood. Recent studies show an important role of type I interferon (IFN) in the proinflammatory process leading to disease manifestations in muscle tissue.4,–,6

    In order to investigate the relationship of soluble IFNα serum levels with clinical and laboratory characteristics we analysed serum samples of 43 patients with DM/PM (24/19 patients with DM and PM, respectively; 32 women/11 men). Patients were selected from a cohort of 81 PM/DM cases with the preference for those who were anti-Jo-1 positive, and had muscle MRI performed. In total, 44% of patients (n=19) were not treated prior to the collection of blood samples (group 1). Patients treated with ≤20 mg of prednisone per day at the time of blood draw were assigned to group 2 …

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    Footnotes

    • Funding This work was supported by grants MSM 0021620812, GAUK 52608/2008 and GACR 305/08/H037, MSM 0021620806.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Ethics approval This study was conducted with the approval of the Ethics Committee in Institute of Rheumatology, Prague.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.