Secondary myopathy due to systemic diseases.

Background: Some systemic diseases also affect the skeletal muscle to various degrees and with different manifestations. This review aimed at summarizing and discussing recent advances concerning the management of muscle disease in systemic diseases.

Method: Literature review by search of MEDLINE, and Current Contents with appropriate search terms.

Results: Secondary muscle disease occurs in infectious disease, endocrine disorders, metabolic disorders, immunological disease, vascular diseases, hematological disorders, and malignancies. Muscle manifestations in these categories include pathogen-caused myositis, muscle infarction, rhabdomyolysis, myasthenia, immune-mediated myositis, necrotising myopathy, or vasculitis-associated myopathy. Muscle affection may concern only a single muscle, a group of muscles, or the entire musculature. Severity of muscle affection may be transient or permanent, may be a minor part of or may dominate the clinical picture, or may be mild or severe, requiring invasive measures including artificial ventilation if the respiratory muscles are additionally involved. Diagnostic work-up is similar to that of primary myopathies by application of non-invasive and invasive techniques. Treatment of muscle involvement in systemic diseases is based on elimination of the underlying cause and supportive measures. The prognosis is usually fair if the causative disorder is effectively treatable but can be fatal in single cases if the entire musculature including the respiratory muscles is involved, in case of infection, or in case of severe rhabdomyolysis.

Conclusion: Secondary muscle manifestations of systemic diseases must be addressed and appropriately managed. Prognosis of secondary muscle disease in systemic diseases is usually fair if the underlying condition is accessible to treatment.