Systemic Involvement in Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathies: Focusing Beyond the Muscles

Idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) is a group of autoimmune disorders characterized by impairment of bilateral proximal skeletal muscle. In addition to the muscular damage, multiple extra-muscular complications encompassing cutaneous lesions, interstitial lung disease, secondary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, carcinoma, thrombotic events, opportunistic infections, etc., contributed to low quality of life, increased medical expense and led to unfavorable outcome in IIM patients. Despite the preceding studies in this field, our understanding and management of these complications remain quite limited. It is thus of great value to deepen our understanding of these extra-muscular manifestations. Via the establishment of this research topic, we hope the researchers, clinical or experimental, will keep digging into the pathogenesis, clinical characteristics as well as therapeutic regimens for extra-muscular involvement like interstitial lung disease, cutaneous lesions, hematological alterations, cardiac injury, occurrence of carcinoma, complication of opportunistic infection, etc. in these patients, and therefore promote the development of research in IIM.

This Research Topic aims at revealing novel pathophysiological processes, deepening our understanding as well as identifying more predicting factors or therapeutic regimens for extra-muscular complications in IIM patients. To deepen our understanding through different approaches, a wide range of types of manuscripts will fall into our scope, including Original Research, Review, Meta-Analysis, and Case Report with enough originality and clinical value. Any clinical, translational or laboratory studies that are relevant to the topic will be welcome and taken into consideration for peer review and publication. To gain various insights from a wider range of researchers, contributions from multiple disciplines are advocated, such as rheumatology, neurology, cardiology, dermatology, respirology, intensive care, transplantation surgery and laboratory medicine.

The work would focus on, but is not limited to, the following fields:
- Extra-muscular involvement: cutaneous lesions, interstitial lung disease, secondary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, carcinoma, thrombotic events, opportunistic infections
- Diagnosis in IIM multiple extra-muscular complications
- Epidemiology related to IIM multiple extra-muscular complications
- Pathophysiological mechanisms of IIM multiple extra-muscular complications
- Identification of humoral biomarkers, imaging characteristics, predictive factors or algorithms
- Novel therapeutic regimens or preventive approaches.