Deep Venous Thrombosis in Dermatomyositis

Excerpt

To the Editor:

Recent reports suggest a marked increase in incidence of venous thromboembolism (deep vein thrombosis, DVT) in patients withWegener’s granulomatosis¹, a finding that has not been explained by common risk factors for thrombophilia². To our knowledge, an increased incidence of DVT in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) has not previously been reported. We describe our experience with a small cohort of patients with IIM.

On review of our hospital electronic medical record (with approval from the institutional review board), 54 patients with a diagnosis of IIM were identified from January 1999 to December 2007. IIM was diagnosed ...