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Advanced Neurology

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Myographic evidence of polymyositis and

dermatomyositis in COVID-19 patients

1
Nareen Haikaz Hasrat , Haithem Jawad Kadhum , Zaineb Adil Yakob ,
1
1
Ali Raheem Hashim , and Hassan Ala Farid *
3
2
1 Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq
2 Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Basrah, Basrah, Iraq
3 Institute of Medical and Biomedical Education, St. George’s University of London, London,
United Kingdom

Abstract

Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, commonly known as myositis, are a diverse
group of disorders defined clinically by persistent muscle weakness and reduced
muscle endurance, as well as inflammatory cell infiltrates inside the muscle tissue.
Myositis as a complication of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been
described in an increasing number of reports. An analytical and cross-sectional
study was undertaken in Basrah to analyze nerve conduction studies (NCS) and
electromyographic (EMG) data in a COVID-19-affected patient. During the evaluation
of 2240 patients, three cases of myositis were reported among the COVID-19
population, two of them with new clinical and EMG evidence of inflammatory myositis
after the onset of COVID-19 infection, and one patient had a history of polymyositis
before the COVID-19 pandemic, but a relapse was triggered by COVID-19, resulting in
*Corresponding author: respiratory failure and death. The study found that the prevalence of myositis among
Hassan Ala Farid the COVID-19 population was equal to 0.22%, which is 44 times higher than the
(hfarid@sgul.ac.uk)
prevalence of myositis (0.005%) worldwide before the onset of COVID-19 (P < 0.001).
Citation: Hasrat NH,
Kadhum HJ, Yakob ZA, et al.,
2023, Myographic evidence of Keywords: Inflammatory myopathy; Polymyositis; Dermatomyositis; COVID-19
polymyositis and dermatomyositis
in COVID-19 patients. Adv Neuro,
2(2): 378.
https://doi.org/10.36922/an.378
Received: February 15, 2023 1. Introduction
Accepted: May 2, 2023 The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was caused by a novel coronavirus,
namely, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which rapidly
Published Online: May 25, 2023 spread from China to all continents. The disease has spread throughout the globe,
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). culminating in an ongoing epidemic . Acute infection with the new coronavirus that
[1]
This is an Open-Access article causes COVID-19 disease results in a variety of clinical symptoms, including various
distributed under the terms of the
[2]
Creative Commons Attribution neurological abnormalities . Peripheral nervous system symptoms, such as peripheral
License, permitting distribution, neuropathies, are often recorded in the medical literature, primarily as Guillain–Barré
and reproduction in any medium, syndrome (GBS) .
[3]
provided the original work is
properly cited. Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies, often known as myositis, are a heterogeneous
Publisher’s Note: AccScience collection of illnesses characterized by chronic muscular weakness and decreased muscle
Publishing remains neutral with endurance, as well as inflammatory cell infiltrations inside the muscle tissue. Variations
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional in clinical and histological features have led to their classification as polymyositis (PM),
[4]
affiliations. dermatomyositis (DM), and inclusion body myositis (IBM) . Along with the presence of
Volume 2 Issue 2 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/an.378