Inflammatory myositis in children, including differential diagnosis.

Advances in dermatomyositis and the juvenile idiopathic inflammatory myopathies over the past year included the development of new possible disease activity markers. Further evidence that these markers correlate with disease activity will give clinicians tools necessary for assessment of patient response to therapy. Validated disease activity and outcome measures will also allow for assessment of efficacy of new therapies as well as new combinations of older therapies. Basic questions about risks and benefits of widely used therapies such as pulse intravenous methylprednisolone still need to be addressed. Some open-label and retrospective assessments of therapeutic strategies for idiopathic inflammatory myopathies were recently published. Finally, further delineation of the roles of genetics, environment and immunity in the pathogenesis and course of the juvenile idiopathic inflammatory myopathies continued this year.