T-Cell-Mediated Inflammatory Myopathies in HIV-Positive Individuals: A Histologic Study of 19 Cases

Abstract

T cell-mediated inflammatory myopathies (polymyositis [PM] and inclusion body myositis [IBM]) sometimes arise in conjunction with HIV infection; however, it is not understood whether PM and IBM arising in the context of HIV (HIV-PM and HV-IBM) differ from PM and IBM arising sporadically in HIV-negative individuals (sPM and sIBM). Here, we report the largest series of T cell-mediated inflammatory myopathies from HIV-infected patients (19 biopsies from 15 subjects); 5 cases were pathologically classified as PM (HIV-PM) and 14 as IBM (HIV-IBM). As with sporadic cases, quantitative immunohistochemistry for LC3, p62, and TDP-43 showed significantly greater percentage of stained fibers (% FS) in HIV-IBM compared to HIV-PM samples; however, there was no significant difference in % FS for any of the three markers between HIV-associated and sporadic cases. Despite histologic similarities between HIV-IBM and sIBM but in concordance with prior case reports, patients with HIV-IBM were significantly younger at diagnosis than patients with sIBM; in contrast, the mean age of HIV-PM and sPM patients was not significantly different. In summary, HIV-PM and HIV-IBM are morphologically similar to sPM and sIBM; thus, it remains unclear why patients with HIV-IBM, in contrast to patients with sIBM, sometimes show clinical improvement in response to immunosuppressive therapy.