Immune-Mediated Necrotizing Myopathy: Statin-Linked HMGCR and SRP Antibody Forms
Immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy is an autoimmune muscle disease: the body's own immune system turns against skeletal muscle, and muscle fibres die in large numbers. It causes weakness of the hips, thighs and shoulders that can come on over weeks to months, together with a very high level of the muscle enzyme creatine kinase in the blood. For many years people with this disease were told they had polymyositis. Antibody tests developed since 2010 split it into its own group, and one of those antibodies tied a share of cases to statins, the most widely used cholesterol-lowering medicines. This page explains what the condition is, the three antibody groups, what the research found about statins, how the disease is diagnosed, which treatments have been studied, what was found about cancer, and what is still unknown.
Table of Contents
- What the Condition Is
- How It Differs From Polymyositis
- Three Groups Defined by Antibodies
- The Statin Link and Its Limits
- Symptoms, Heart and Breathing
- How the Diagnosis Is Made
- Treatments Studied and What They Showed
- Cancer Findings by Antibody Group
- Outcomes Over the Years
- What Is Still Not Known
- Key Research Papers
- Connections
- Featured Videos
What the Condition Is
"Myopathy" means a disease of muscle. "Necrotizing" means that muscle cells are dying. "Immune-mediated" means that the immune system is driving the damage. Put together, immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy is a disease in which the immune system destroys muscle fibres faster than the body can repair them.
A 2020 review by Allenbach and colleagues in Nature Reviews Rheumatology describes it as a group of inflammatory muscle diseases that was set apart from polymyositis in 2004. Most people with it carry one of two antibodies in their blood, and about 20% carry neither. The review describes the disease as frequently rapidly progressive and severe, with high creatine kinase levels, and notes that without effective treatment it can leave lasting muscle damage.
Creatine kinase is an enzyme that sits inside muscle cells. When muscle fibres break open, it leaks into the blood, so its level is a rough gauge of how much muscle is being damaged. A typical adult level is in the low hundreds of units per litre. In immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy the level is often in the thousands. A Mayo Clinic series of 63 patients reported a median of 5,326 units per litre, and a Johns Hopkins series reported a mean highest value of 10,333 units per litre. The site's Creatine Kinase page explains the test itself.
The same muscle-cell breakdown, when it happens suddenly and on a huge scale, is called rhabdomyolysis. Rhabdomyolysis usually has an outside cause such as crushing injury, extreme exertion, heat or a drug, and it settles once the cause is removed. Immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy is different because the immune attack keeps going.
How It Differs From Polymyositis
Doctors tell the inflammatory muscle diseases apart largely by what a piece of muscle looks like under the microscope. The site's Polymyositis page describes the classic polymyositis picture: immune cells called CD8 T cells crowd into the muscle and attack fibres that are still healthy.
In immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy the picture is almost the reverse. A 2014 review by Mammen describes the biopsy as predominantly necrotizing, with minimal lymphocytic infiltration. In plain words, many fibres are dead or dying, other fibres are regrowing, and few immune cells are seen in the tissue. The 2010 Johns Hopkins study by Christopher-Stine and colleagues, which first described the antibody now known as anti-HMGCR, looked at muscle biopsies from 225 people with muscle disease. In 38 of them the main finding was dead muscle fibres. Among the 26 of these with no known cause, 16 carried the new antibody, compared with only 1 of 187 people whose biopsies did not show this pattern.
The Mammen review adds a caution: a biopsy full of dead fibres is not specific to this disease. Toxic damage, hormone disorders and inherited muscle diseases (muscular dystrophies) can look similar, and the same pattern turns up in anti-synthetase syndrome and in muscle disease linked to scleroderma. That is why antibody testing carries so much weight in the diagnosis.
Two other conditions are often compared with it. Dermatomyositis has a typical skin rash and a different biopsy pattern centred on small blood vessels. Inclusion body myositis mostly affects people over 50, weakens the thigh and finger muscles first, often on one side more than the other, and usually progresses slowly over years.
Three Groups Defined by Antibodies
Researchers now divide immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy into three groups according to which antibody, if any, is found in the blood. The 2020 Allenbach review names the same three: anti-SRP-positive, anti-HMGCR-positive and seronegative.
Anti-HMGCR antibodies
3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMGCR) is the enzyme the liver and other cells use to make cholesterol. It is also the exact enzyme that statins block. People in this group make antibodies against that enzyme, called anti-HMGCR antibodies. A 2011 study by Mammen and colleagues identified the enzyme as the target of the antibody that had been described the year before.
Anti-SRP antibodies
The signal recognition particle (SRP) is a small piece of machinery inside every cell. It guides newly made proteins to the part of the cell where they are finished and packed. People in this group make antibodies against it, called anti-SRP antibodies. This group has no known link to statins.
Antibody-negative (seronegative) disease
"Seronegative" means that neither antibody is found, although the muscle biopsy shows the same pattern of dying fibres. The Allenbach review puts this at about 20% of people with the disease, and notes that in this group the disease can occur together with cancer.
How common each group is
Figures differ between centres. In a Japanese registry of 460 people with inflammatory muscle disease, Watanabe and colleagues found that of the 387 who did not have inclusion body myositis, 18% carried anti-SRP antibodies and 12% carried anti-HMGCR antibodies; one person had both. In the Mayo Clinic series of 63 patients reported by Kassardjian and colleagues in 2015, 13 (24%) were anti-SRP positive and 17 (34%) were anti-HMGCR positive, and one was positive for both.
Mouse studies summarised in the 2020 review found that injecting anti-SRP or anti-HMGCR antibodies caused weakness and muscle fibre death in mice. The review's authors take this as evidence that the antibodies may help cause the disease, and are not only a marker of it.
The Statin Link and Its Limits
Statins lower cholesterol by blocking HMGCR. Common examples are atorvastatin, simvastatin, rosuvastatin and pravastatin. The site's Cholesterol Management page covers what they are used for. Their most familiar side effect is muscle aching. The site's statin-associated muscle symptoms page covers that common, self-limited problem. Anti-HMGCR disease is a separate and much rarer condition.
How often statin exposure appears
In the 2010 study that first described the antibody, 63% of the antibody-positive patients had taken a statin before their weakness began. In the 2011 follow-up from the same centre, anti-HMGCR antibodies were found in 45 of 750 patients (6%) seen at the Johns Hopkins Myositis Center, and 92.3% of the antibody-positive patients aged 50 and older had taken statins. In the 2015 Mayo Clinic series, 22 of 63 patients (35%) were taking a statin when the disease began.
How rare it is among statin users
A 2012 study by Mammen and colleagues looked for the antibody in people who were not sick with muscle disease. Among 1,966 participants in a community heart study, 763 of whom were current statin users, not one had anti-HMGCR antibodies. None were found either in 51 people with familial high cholesterol whose statin muscle symptoms had cleared up, or in 47 people taking maximal statin doses without trouble. The authors concluded that the antibody is highly specific for autoimmune muscle disease. Ordinary statin aches do not produce it, and most statin users never develop it.
Why it can continue after the statin is stopped
Ordinary statin muscle aches usually fade once the medicine is stopped. The 2011 study described anti-HMGCR disease as different and suggested a reason. Statins raised the amount of HMGCR in cultured cells. In patients' muscle, the HMGCR enzyme was found at high levels in fibres that were regrowing. The authors proposed that these regrowing fibres keep showing the immune system its target, which may sustain the immune response even after statins are discontinued. In the 2010 series, all patients responded to immunosuppressive medicines, and many relapsed when those medicines were tapered.
The 2011 study also tested a gene variant (rs4149056) known to predict ordinary self-limited statin muscle problems. This variant was not more common in anti-HMGCR patients, which again sets the two conditions apart.
People who never took a statin
Not every anti-HMGCR patient has taken a statin. In the Mayo Clinic series, about one-third of the anti-HMGCR-positive patients had never taken one. A 2012 study by Werner and colleagues followed 55 anti-HMGCR patients, 40 of whom had taken statins. Statin-exposed patients had significant improvements in creatine kinase and strength with treatment, while those never exposed did not. The 2014 Mammen review states that the statin-naive group may be particularly hard to treat with immunosuppressive drugs. Even so, a 2017 study by Tiniakou and colleagues found that once age was accounted for, a history of statin exposure was not independently linked to how fast patients improved. Younger age at onset mattered more.
Symptoms, Heart and Breathing
Muscle weakness
The main symptom is weakness of the large muscles nearest the trunk: the hips, thighs, shoulders and upper arms. People describe trouble rising from a low chair, climbing stairs, getting up from the floor or lifting their arms to brush their hair. In the 2010 series every antibody-positive patient had this kind of weakness. In the Mayo Clinic series, leg weakness was the main feature in 73%. Weakness further out in the limbs (distal weakness) was also common, at 41%. Muscle pain may or may not be present.
Swallowing
The throat muscles are skeletal muscles too. Dysphagia, meaning difficulty swallowing, was reported in 35% of the Mayo Clinic patients. In the Japanese registry, severe limb weakness, neck weakness, swallowing difficulty, breathing weakness and muscle wasting were all more common with anti-SRP antibodies than with anti-HMGCR antibodies.
Heart and breathing
A 2020 Mayo Clinic study by Triplett and colleagues looked at the heart and lungs in 109 patients: 36 anti-HMGCR positive, 18 anti-SRP positive (3 of them positive for both) and 58 seronegative. The median age at diagnosis was 60.
- 43 patients were short of breath when they first came to the clinic.
- The electrocardiogram (heart tracing) was abnormal in 55 of 86 tested, including 33 with no known heart risk factors. Findings included a prolonged QT interval, conduction blocks and extra beats.
- The echocardiogram (heart ultrasound) was abnormal in 34 of 72, including 19 of 45 with no prior heart risk. The most common finding was stiffness of the main pumping chamber when it fills (diastolic dysfunction, 31 patients). Eight had weak pumping (systolic dysfunction). The stiffness improved after treatment in 4 of 11 patients followed.
- Breathing tests suggested weak breathing muscles in 51 of 66 patients. Oxygen levels dropped overnight in 24 of 38 tested.
- Scarring of the lung tissue itself (interstitial lung disease) was rare: 6 patients. This contrasts with anti-synthetase syndrome, where lung scarring is common.
- Six patients needed a breathing machine (mechanical ventilation), and seven needed non-invasive breathing support.
Hospitals treat sudden difficulty breathing, choking on food or drink, and very dark urine together with weakness as urgent signs. Dark urine can mean that muscle protein is reaching the kidneys.
How the Diagnosis Is Made
No single test settles the diagnosis. The studies above describe doctors combining four kinds of evidence.
Creatine kinase blood test
A very high creatine kinase level, often in the thousands of units per litre, is usually the first clue. A high level alone does not prove an autoimmune cause. Hard exercise, injury, some medicines, an underactive thyroid and inherited muscle diseases can all raise it. The level is also followed over time. The 2012 Werner study found that anti-HMGCR antibody levels were linked to creatine kinase levels and to strength, a link that held up mainly in statin-exposed patients. With immunosuppressive treatment over about two years (26.2 months on average), antibody levels fell and arm strength improved. The antibody did not return to normal in any patient.
Antibody tests
Blood is tested for anti-HMGCR and anti-SRP antibodies, usually as part of a wider panel of myositis antibodies. A positive result places a person in one of the two antibody groups. Because the 2012 community study found no anti-HMGCR antibodies in statin users without autoimmune muscle disease, a positive anti-HMGCR test is regarded as highly specific.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
A 2017 Johns Hopkins study by Pinal-Fernandez and colleagues compared thigh magnetic resonance imaging scans from 666 people with different inflammatory muscle diseases, 101 of whom had immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy. Compared with dermatomyositis or polymyositis, a larger share of thigh muscles showed swelling (oedema), shrinkage (atrophy) and replacement by fat. Fat replacement began early in the disease. Anti-SRP patients had more atrophy and fat replacement than anti-HMGCR patients. On its own, the best combination of scan features was right only 55% of the time when it pointed to this disease.
Muscle biopsy
A small piece of muscle is removed and examined. The typical finding is scattered dead and regrowing fibres with few inflammatory cells, as described above. The biopsy also helps rule out inherited muscular dystrophies, which can look similar. In the 2017 Tiniakou study, whole exome sequencing (a broad genetic test) in eight hard-to-treat anti-HMGCR patients found no disease-causing changes in known muscular dystrophy genes.
Treatments Studied and What They Showed
No medicine is approved specifically for immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy. The 2023 zilucoplan trial report states this directly and notes that many patients still have active disease on off-label treatment. Most of the evidence comes from case series and clinic cohorts, not randomised trials. Decisions about these medicines belong with the treating specialists. What follows is what the studies reported.
Corticosteroids and added immunosuppressants
A 2023 treatment review by Ogbonnaya-Whittlesey and colleagues describes the cornerstone of treatment as corticosteroids combined with "steroid-sparing" agents. These are immunosuppressant medicines such as methotrexate, added so that the corticosteroid dose can be lowered. In the Mayo Clinic series, prednisone alone did not control the disease in most patients, and 30 of 32 patients needed two or more immune-suppressing medicines. Relapse happened in 16 of 29 patients (55%) while medicines were being reduced or stopped. Male sex, and starting two or more immune treatments within three months of onset, predicted a better outcome. In the Japanese registry, most patients started on corticosteroids, but more medicines were needed, especially in the anti-SRP group.
Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG)
Intravenous immunoglobulin is a concentrate of antibodies pooled from many blood donors and given by drip. The 2023 review explains that it is thought to shorten the life of the body's own harmful antibodies, and describes it as having shown promise in this disease.
A large randomised trial of intravenous immunoglobulin in myositis, the ProDERM trial (Aggarwal and colleagues, 2022), enrolled people with dermatomyositis, not immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy. It gave 95 patients either 2.0 g per kilogram of body weight or a placebo every 4 weeks for 16 weeks. At 16 weeks, 79% of the treated group (37 of 47) and 44% of the placebo group (21 of 48) showed at least minimal improvement on a combined score of disease activity. Creatine kinase, one part of that score, did not differ meaningfully between the groups. Over 40 weeks, 9 serious side effects were judged to be related to the treatment, 6 of them blood clots, and headache affected 42% of treated patients. The trial shows that intravenous immunoglobulin can work in one inflammatory muscle disease and documents its clotting risk. It did not test immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy itself.
Rituximab in anti-SRP disease
Rituximab is an antibody medicine that removes B cells, the white blood cells that make antibodies. In a 2010 series by Valiyil and colleagues, 8 anti-SRP patients were given rituximab after standard immunosuppression had failed. Six showed better strength, lower creatine kinase or both, as early as 2 months afterwards. Three kept the response for 12 to 18 months. All stayed on corticosteroids, but at much lower doses, and their anti-SRP antibody levels fell. In the larger 2017 Johns Hopkins anti-SRP cohort, rituximab appeared effective in 13 of 17 patients who received it. The 2023 review notes that in severe cases, intravenous immunoglobulin and rituximab given together may have a combined effect.
A complement blocker that did not work
Both antibodies can activate complement, a part of the immune system that punches holes in cells, and complement is found on the surface of muscle fibres in this disease. That led to a randomised trial of zilucoplan, a medicine that blocks complement component 5. In the 2023 trial by Mammen and colleagues, 27 adults with anti-HMGCR or anti-SRP disease received zilucoplan or placebo for 8 weeks. Creatine kinase fell by 9.86% on zilucoplan and by 20.72% on placebo, a difference that was not statistically significant (p = 0.46). The authors concluded that blocking this complement step does not appear to be effective, and that complement activation may follow muscle injury rather than drive it.
Cancer Findings by Antibody Group
Some inflammatory muscle diseases, especially dermatomyositis, are known to appear alongside cancer. A 2016 French study by Allenbach and colleagues in the journal Brain asked whether the same was true here. It analysed 115 patients with immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy and found:
- Cancer occurred more often in seronegative patients and in anti-HMGCR-positive patients than in anti-SRP-positive patients.
- Cancer found around the time of the muscle diagnosis ("synchronous" cancer) affected 21.4% of seronegative patients and 11.5% of anti-HMGCR-positive patients.
- In both of these groups, cancer was more common than in the general population.
- No single type of cancer predominated.
- Patients with a synchronous cancer had a shorter median survival.
The authors concluded that cancer screening is needed in seronegative and anti-HMGCR-positive patients, but not in anti-SRP-positive patients.
Not every study agrees. The 2017 Tiniakou study of a United States anti-HMGCR cohort reported that cancer risk was not raised compared with the general population. The 2015 Mayo Clinic series found cancer in 6 of 63 patients. The 2020 review highlights cancer mainly in the seronegative group. Taken together, the evidence is most consistent for seronegative disease and mixed for anti-HMGCR disease.
Outcomes Over the Years
The long-term studies describe a chronic disease for many people, not a short illness.
- Anti-HMGCR disease. In the 2017 Tiniakou study, 50 patients were followed for at least two years. Only 22 of them (44%) regained full strength with treatment. Of those, 55% still had creatine kinase above 500 units per litre, and only three could be taken off immunosuppressive treatment. Patients who were older at onset were stronger at every point and improved faster. Younger patients were more likely to have disease that resisted treatment. The authors describe anti-HMGCR myositis as usually a chronic disease needing long-term immunosuppression.
- Anti-SRP disease. In the 2017 Johns Hopkins cohort of 37 anti-SRP patients, followed over 380 clinic visits, only 50% reached near-full or full strength after 4 years of treatment, and most of those still had raised creatine kinase. Younger age at onset again went with more severe weakness. As a group, anti-SRP patients were significantly weaker than anti-HMGCR patients.
- Across groups. In the Japanese registry, anti-SRP disease caused more severe symptoms, yet the rate of unsatisfactory neurological outcome was similar in the two antibody groups. In the Mayo Clinic series, presentation, course and outcomes did not differ significantly between seropositive, seronegative and statin-associated cases. Early aggressive immunosuppression was linked to better results.
The imaging finding that fat begins replacing muscle early in the disease sits alongside the Mayo Clinic finding that early combined treatment was linked to better outcomes.
What Is Still Not Known
- Why so few statin users are affected. Millions of people take statins. The 2012 community study found the antibody in none of 763 current users. What makes one person's immune system react remains unexplained, and the gene variant behind ordinary statin muscle problems was not the answer.
- What triggers disease in people who never took a statin. The statin-naive anti-HMGCR group, the anti-SRP group and the seronegative group have no established trigger.
- How the muscle is actually killed. The antibodies cause disease in mice, but the 2023 zilucoplan trial argues against complement as the main route. The authors suggest complement may be a consequence of the injury.
- The best treatment order. The treatment evidence rests mostly on case series and clinic cohorts. No randomised trial of intravenous immunoglobulin or rituximab in this disease was among the studies reviewed here, and ProDERM tested dermatomyositis.
- Who carries a raised cancer risk. Results for anti-HMGCR disease differ between the French and United States cohorts.
- Why younger patients do worse. In both antibody groups, younger age at onset predicted more severe disease. Genetic testing in the 2017 study did not find a hidden muscular dystrophy behind it.
Key Research Papers
- Christopher-Stine L, Casciola-Rosen LA, Hong G, Chung T, Corse AM, Mammen AL. A novel autoantibody recognizing 200-kd and 100-kd proteins is associated with an immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy. Arthritis Rheum. 2010;62(9):2757-66. PubMed PMID: 20496415
- Mammen AL, Chung T, Christopher-Stine L, Rosen P, Rosen A, Doering KR, Casciola-Rosen LA. Autoantibodies against 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase in patients with statin-associated autoimmune myopathy. Arthritis Rheum. 2011;63(3):713-21. PubMed PMID: 21360500
- Mammen AL, Pak K, Williams EK, Brisson D, Coresh J, Selvin E, Gaudet D. Rarity of anti-3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase antibodies in statin users, including those with self-limited musculoskeletal side effects. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2012;64(2):269-72. PubMed PMID: 21972203
- Werner JL, Christopher-Stine L, Ghazarian SR, Pak KS, Kus JE, Daya NR, et al. Antibody levels correlate with creatine kinase levels and strength in anti-3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase-associated autoimmune myopathy. Arthritis Rheum. 2012;64(12):4087-93. PubMed PMID: 22933019
- Mammen AL. Necrotizing myopathies: beyond statins. Curr Opin Rheumatol. 2014;26(6):679-83. PubMed PMID: 25203117
- Kassardjian CD, Lennon VA, Alfugham NB, Mahler M, Milone M. Clinical Features and Treatment Outcomes of Necrotizing Autoimmune Myopathy. JAMA Neurol. 2015;72(9):996-1003. PubMed PMID: 26192196
- Allenbach Y, Keraen J, Bouvier AM, Jooste V, Champtiaux N, Hervier B, et al. High risk of cancer in autoimmune necrotizing myopathies: usefulness of myositis specific antibody. Brain. 2016;139(Pt 8):2131-5. PubMed PMID: 27086869
- Watanabe Y, Uruha A, Suzuki S, Nakahara J, Hamanaka K, Takayama K, et al. Clinical features and prognosis in anti-SRP and anti-HMGCR necrotising myopathy. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2016;87(10):1038-44. PubMed PMID: 27147697
- Pinal-Fernandez I, Parks C, Werner JL, Albayda J, Paik J, Danoff SK, et al. Longitudinal Course of Disease in a Large Cohort of Myositis Patients With Autoantibodies Recognizing the Signal Recognition Particle. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2017;69(2):263-270. PubMed PMID: 27111848
- Tiniakou E, Pinal-Fernandez I, Lloyd TE, Albayda J, Paik J, Werner JL, et al. More severe disease and slower recovery in younger patients with anti-3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase-associated autoimmune myopathy. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2017;56(5):787-794. PubMed PMID: 28096458
- Pinal-Fernandez I, Casal-Dominguez M, Carrino JA, Lahouti AH, Basharat P, Albayda J, et al. Thigh muscle MRI in immune-mediated necrotising myopathy: extensive oedema, early muscle damage and role of anti-SRP autoantibodies as a marker of severity. Ann Rheum Dis. 2017;76(4):681-687. PubMed PMID: 27651398
- Triplett J, Kassardjian CD, Liewluck T, Tahir A, Lennon V, Kopecky S, Milone M. Cardiac and Respiratory Complications of Necrotizing Autoimmune Myopathy. Mayo Clin Proc. 2020;95(10):2144-2149. PubMed PMID: 32807522
- Allenbach Y, Benveniste O, Stenzel W, Boyer O. Immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy: clinical features and pathogenesis. Nat Rev Rheumatol. 2020;16(12):689-701. PubMed PMID: 33093664
- Valiyil R, Casciola-Rosen L, Hong G, Mammen A, Christopher-Stine L. Rituximab therapy for myopathy associated with anti-signal recognition particle antibodies: a case series. Arthritis Care Res (Hoboken). 2010;62(9):1328-34. PubMed PMID: 20506493
- Aggarwal R, Charles-Schoeman C, Schessl J, Bata-Csörgő Z, Dimachkie MM, Griger Z, et al. Trial of Intravenous Immune Globulin in Dermatomyositis. N Engl J Med. 2022;387(14):1264-1278. PubMed PMID: 36198179
- Mammen AL, Amato AA, Dimachkie MM, Chinoy H, Hussain Y, Lilleker JB, et al. Zilucoplan in immune-mediated necrotising myopathy: a phase 2, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre trial. Lancet Rheumatol. 2023;5(2):e67-e76. PubMed PMID: 36923454
- Ogbonnaya-Whittlesey SA, Kobrin D, Casal-Dominguez M, Mammen AL, Pinal-Fernandez I. Treatment of Immune-Mediated Necrotizing Myopathy. Curr Treatm Opt Rheumatol. 2023;9(4):168-178. PubMed PMID: 40809544
PubMed Topic Searches
Connections
- Rheumatology — the parent section for autoimmune and muscle diseases
- Polymyositis — the older diagnosis many of these patients once carried
- Dermatomyositis — the inflammatory myopathy with a skin rash, and the disease ProDERM tested
- Inclusion Body Myositis — the slow myositis of later life that responds poorly to immune treatment
- Anti-Synthetase Syndrome — myositis with lung scarring, which can also show dead fibres on biopsy
- Rhabdomyolysis — sudden large-scale muscle breakdown and its kidney risk
- Creatine Kinase — the blood test that gauges muscle damage
- Statin-Associated Muscle Symptoms — the common, self-limited statin muscle problem
- Cholesterol Management — what statins are prescribed for