Respiratory Muscle Weakness with Dermatomyositis During Pregnancy: Successful Treatment with Intravenous Immunoglobulin Therapy

Excerpt

To the Editor:

Autoimmune myositis is relatively rare in women of reproductive age and very few cases of pregnancy in women with autoimmune myositis have been reported. We describe severe dermatomyositis (DM) that developed during pregnancy, showed an unsatisfactory response to corticosteroid, and required intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy.

A 31-year-old woman who was 18 weeks pregnant complained of fever, muscle weakness, erythema, and arthralgia in May 2007. She visited a local clinic, where high serum creatinine kinase (CK) concentration was noted in June 2007, and she was referred to our hospital. On admission, she was 23 weeks pregnant and her ...