Inflammatory myopathy in children.

The symptoms of inflammatory muscle disease in children can be characterized as either acute or chronic in nature; acute muscle complaints are usually associated with viral or bacterial infectious agents. Throughout the world, most of the acute inflammatory myopathies may be a consequence of bacterial or parasitic infection, but in North America, acute myositis is more often a viral cause. A child with chronic inflammatory myositis may have some symptoms that are similar to those seen in adults who develop one of the idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. These myopathies comprise a very diverse group of syndromes that have in common chronic muscle inflammation of unknown pathophysiology resulting in damage and affecting muscle function.