ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. General Pediatrics and Pediatric Emergency Care
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1653651
Benign Acute Childhood Myositis: A Retrospective Cohort Study from a Large Tertiary Care Children's Hospital
Provisionally accepted
Nawaf A. Alghamdi1,2Abdulaziz A. Ajeebi1,2Abdulrahman K. Alajlan1,2Abdullah Y. Aldaffaa1,2Winnie Philip2,3
Tahir K. Hameed1,2,3*- 1King Abdullah Specialized Children's Hospital, King Abdulaziz Medical City - Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 2King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
- 3King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Introduction: Benign acute childhood myositis (BACM) is a common self-limiting condition. While studies in other regions have described the epidemiology and outcomes of BACM, there is paucity of data in the Middle East Region. This study aims to describe the epidemiology, clinical data, and outcomes of BACM in a large cohort of patients. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of children diagnosed with BACM at a tertiary care children's hospital between January 2016 and December 2022. The study included children under 14 years with acute onset of muscle pain with elevated CK levels. Clinical, laboratory and outcome data were extracted from the medical records. Results: A total of 392 children were diagnosed with BACM, with a male predominance (78.6%) and a median age of 6 years. Median CK level at presentation was 1750 U/L and an Influenza virus was found in 92.8% of those who had a virus detected. Rhabdomyolysis was diagnosed in 4 (1%) patients and no cases of renal failure were reported. CK levels >5,000 U/L on presentation increased the risk for hospitalization while ibuprofen use in the ED decreased the risk of hospitalization. CK levels normalized at a median time of 7 days and recurrences with new episodes of BACM occurred in almost 10% of children. Conclusions: Our study confirms that BACM is a benign condition with a very low rate of complications. Further studies are needed to evaluate factors associated with hospitalization and when to screen for genetic/metabolic causes of elevated CK levels.
Keywords: Benign acute childhood myositis, Viral myositis, influenza, Child, Rhabdomyolysis
Received: 25 Jun 2025; Accepted: 26 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Alghamdi, Ajeebi, Alajlan, Aldaffaa, Philip and Hameed. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Tahir K. Hameed, King Abdullah Specialized Children's Hospital, King Abdulaziz Medical City - Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.