Background: Muscle complaints are frequent among older adults, but histological data in this setting are scarce. Our objective was to detect the major categories of muscle diseases in the elderly population based on histological study.
Methods: We reviewed all muscle biopsies performed in our hospital on patients older than the age of 65 during a 10-year period (1988-1997). As a control group, we included the next patient younger than 65 who underwent muscle biopsy after each elderly patient. We recorded demographic, clinical, and histological data of the patients, as well as the final diagnosis. Concordance between pre- and postbiopsy diagnosis was also analyzed.
Results: We included 239 muscle biopsies corresponding to elderly patients and 239 to controls. Compared with the control group, elderly patients more frequently exhibited type II fiber atrophy and were diagnosed with a specific myopathy. The latter was achieved in 86 cases (36%), idiopathic inflammatory myopathies and vasculitis being the most frequent diagnoses. Interestingly, in about one quarter of the elderly patients in whom a definite diagnosis of muscle disease was achieved, this diagnosis had not been clinically suspected prior to muscle biopsy. Overall, in 60 out of 239 elderly patients (25%), a specific therapeutic regimen could be instituted on the basis of the muscle biopsy results.
Conclusions: Muscle diseases are not rare in elderly patients. Therefore, muscle biopsy constitutes a safe and useful tool for diagnosis because, if not performed, some potentially treatable diseases may be undiagnosed or misdiagnosed.