Laboratory testing commonly used to assess the idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs) can be divided into three categories: (1) measurement of serum activities or concentrations of muscle-derived factors--such as enzymes, myoglobin, and other molecules--in order to assess muscle injury; (2) immunologic tests that detect markers of the disease process, including serum autoantibodies that have been associated with myositis; and (3) general laboratory tests that are used to assess the patient's general status and medical condition. The laboratory assessment of muscle-derived factors that reflect muscle injury, and the determination of serum autoantibodies, play valuable roles in the diagnosis and management of the IIM. Enzyme elevations do not correlate with disease activity in all patients, however, and they must be interpreted within the clinical context. Autoantibodies can identify disease subsets with distinctive patterns of clinical manifestations, genetics, responses to therapy and prognosis, but disease-specific autoantibodies are present in only half of patients with IIM. Recent studies have defined additional myositis autoantibodies that may improve our capacity to diagnose and manage the IIM.