Symptoms

Common symptoms of muscle inflammation are muscle weakness, but also localized pain and muscle aches. An inflammation is defined by 5 main symptoms, among others. These include pain, overheating, redness, swelling and functional impairment.

These symptoms can also frequently be observed in inflammation of the muscles. The location of the pain depends on the location of the inflammation. Every muscle can be potentially affected, from the neck to the leg.

Many patients also report feeling aching muscles. Swallowing difficulties can also occur. Since vessels also have a proportion of muscle, the blood vessels may also be involved, a “vasculitis“.

A symptom of this is “Raynaud’s syndrome“, in which the skin color, especially on the fingers, lightens and darkens due to cramping of the blood vessels supplying the skin. Dermatomyositis represents the extension of polymyositis. In this case, the inflammation spreads into the skin and, in addition to the symptoms of muscle inflammation, redness and swelling of individual areas of skin occur.

Diagnosis

For the diagnosis of muscle inflammation the clinical symptoms are the most important factor. Typical first signs are muscle weakness and local pain at the site of inflammation. However, the symptoms develop very slowly in most cases.

In the clinic there are other examination methods that allow a more precise diagnosis. Especially blood tests allow conclusions to be drawn about muscle inflammation. Inflammation parameters in the blood indicate an acute inflammation.

The most important of these are CRP, leukocytes and blood sedimentation rate. If they are increased or changed, this indicates an inflammation in the body. Further values point particularly to the muscle as the origin, including so-called “LDH, transaminases, creatine kinase and myoglobin”.

These molecules are mainly found in the muscle and indicate a destruction of muscle cells, if they are found in increased amounts in the blood. A biopsy is one of the most reliable methods of diagnosing suspected muscle inflammation.A small needle is used to prick the affected muscle in order to remove tissue and examine it closely. If a tissue sample is obtained from the right place, which is not always possible, it is often possible to make an accurate diagnosis and determine the type of myositis.