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Background: Idiopathic Inflammatory Myositis (IIM) is a rare autoimmune systemic disease characterized by a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations mainly involving skin and muscles. Few data are available on literature exploring the gender differences in IIM patients. Objectives: To analyze the gender difference in IIM patients in clinical and autoantibody profiles as well as treatment strategies. Methods: We performed a cross sectional observational study including patients who fulfilled ACR/EULAR 2017 criteria for Dermatomyositis (DM), Polymyositis (PM), and Antisynthetasis Syndrome (ASS) (time frame Jan 2018-December 2023), referring to the Reference Center of "Tor Vergata" University Hospital in Rome (Italy). Demographic data, clinical manifestations, and treatment approaches were recorded. Additionally, an assessment of the antibody profile, encompassing Myositis Specific Antibodies (MSA) and Myositis Associated Antibodies (MAA), was conducted. Continuous variables were compared with T test, categorical variables by using Chi-square or Fisher's exact test. PResults: The study cohort included 51 patients (68.8% F). Median age at disease onset and diagnostic delay were similar in males and females, while disease duration was significantly longer in males (p 0.018) (Table 1). The diagnosis of DM and PM was equally distributed, while ASS was slightly prevalent in men. Accordingly, lung involvement occurred more frequently in males than females (Figure 1). No significant differences emerged between the groups according to comorbidities (Table 1). Joint involvement as well as upper limb muscle weakness affected more frequently female patients (pConclusion: Our study documents for the first time gender differences in IIM, highlighting a different distribution of lung and joint involvement being prevalent mainly in males and females, respectively. Differences in clinical phenotypes, in the absence of a gender-related prevalence of specific autoantibodies, might affect treatment strategies. Our findings support the idea for a gender orientated approach which is crucial to improve decision making process in clinical practice. REFERENCES: NIL. Acknowledgements: NIL. Disclosure of Interests: None declared.
Cela et al. (Sat,) studied this question.