The Profile of Patients with Dermatomyositis in Dakar: A Series of 56 Cases

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to describe the epidemiological, clinical, paraclinical, therapeutic and evolutionary aspects of patients with dermatomyositis in the dermatology department of the Aristide Le Dantec hospital.

Methods: It was a prospective and descriptive study analyzing all the files of patients with dermatomyositis followed at Le Dantec’s dermatology department between January 2009 and December 2019.

Results: We collected 56 cases of dermatomyositis, i.e. a hospital frequency of 1.64%. The average age of the patients was 44 years with 2 cases of juvenile dermatomyositis (9 and 15 years). Pruritus was reported in 13 patients. Cancer was associated with dermatomyositis in 11 cases, including 7 cases of gynecological cancer and 4 cases of ENT cancer. Dermatological manifestations were found in 100% of cases with a predominance of periorbital erythroedema in 66.07%. Muscular manifestations were noted in 96.42%, articular manifestations in 32.14%, pleuropulmonary manifestations in 23.21% and cardiac involvment in 3.57%. All patients received treatment with oral corticosteroids, combined in 5.35% with methotrexate. The outcome was successful in 33.9% and death was noted in 11 patients.

Conclusion: Dermatomyositis (DM) tends to affect young adults more, with a high frequency of forms associated with cancer, and deaths.