Introduction: The purpose of this study was to analyse the clinical characteristics of patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) in Hospital Sultanah Nurzahirah (HSNZ), Terengganu, Malaysia. It also aimed to describe the disease manifestations in association with malignancy and other CTD.
Methods: This was a retrospective descriptive study involving all IIM patients who were managed by the Rheumatology Unit HSNZ from January 2010 to December 2019.
Results: In this review we described 15 cases wherein malignancy was detected in 4 patients after the diagnosis of IIM was made and 4 patients with overlap syndrome. One third of patients with malignancy and overlap syndrome had poor treatment response and succumbed to complications of the disease. Almost all of patients received corticosteroid as the first line therapy and nearly two thirds of them responded well to either corticosteroid alone or with combination therapy.
Conclusion: Although this study did not represent the whole population in Malaysia, it does provide a better understanding of the disease manifestation, treatment and disease complications in our cohort of patients.