[Clinical and evolutionary aspects of polymyosite in internal medicine].

INTRODUCTION: Polymyositis is a chronic inflammatory disease possibly responsable of various systemic manifestations.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Reported is a retrospective done on polymyositis i n internal medecine department in patients from march 1997 to april 2002.

RESULTS: Eleven cases were collected from a total of 6739 admissions giving a prevalence of 0.16%. Sex ratio was 1.2(F/H) with a mean age of 33 years. The most frequent clinical presentation was the muscle signs. It was dominated by the functionnal disability (90.9%), myalgia (81.8%) and dysphagia (36.3%). Systemic manifestations of polymyositis interested articulary, bronchopulmonary, cardiac and neurological areas. Association of polymyositis and other sytemic disease has been found in one patient, who presented also a rhumatoid arthritis. First step treatment was corticotherapy for all patients. Immunosuppressor with azathioprine have been introduced in 2 patients who presented an associated interstitial nulmonary disease. On this treatment we observed 4 cases of total remission, 3 cases of partial remission, 2 death occured and 2 patients have been lost from clinical follow up.

CONCLUSION: The long term follow of these chronic disease is a major problem in developping countries. Most of the patients live far from hospital centers and don't have possibility to do complementary exams so as to buy regulary the drugs.