Newswise — The Myositis Association (TMA) hosts their 2017 Annual Patient Conference September 7-10 at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina. With nearly 500 myositis patients, friends, and family members in attendance, this conference promises to be the largest in TMA history.
Patients affected by myositis, a rare autoimmune disease of the muscles, must cope daily with challenges ranging from muscle weakness and painful rashes to complete disability. Myositis takes many forms, including dermatomyositis, polymyositis, necrotizing myopathy, and inclusion body myositis. Patients also face a number of other life-threatening disorders as well, including interstitial lung disease, antisynthetase syndrome, and a higher risk of cancer and other diseases.
Myositis is a challenge to diagnose and difficult or impossible to treat. On average it takes more than three-and-a-half years and five doctors to correctly diagnose an autoimmune disease. For patients experiencing the debilitating muscle weakness and pain of myositis, this delay can mean the difference—literally—between life and death. Raising awareness of myositis, its symptoms, and treatments is part of the mission of The Myositis Association and this Annual Patient Conference.
At the Conference, hundreds of patients with myositis will come together to learn from the world’s experts about the various forms of the disease. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University, the Mayo Clinic, the NIH, and other prestigious American institutions will be joined by their colleagues from the Netherlands, France, Great Britain, and Sweden to share the growing body of knowledge about myositis.
TMA membership is free and provides myositis patients with information, support, and access to the national and international myositis authorities on TMA’s Medical Advisory Board. Nearly all of those experts will be in San Diego for the conference.
Myositis patients, their caregivers and families are invited to register in advance for the patient conference on TMA’s website, www.myositis.org, or in person at the Sheraton on Thursday, September 1, after 10 a.m.
Journalists are invited to attend any conference activities. Find more information about myositis and the conference at myositis.org. For photos, or to set up an interview with a local patient, myositis medical experts, or TMA’s executive director, call TMA Communications Director Linda Kobert at 434-882-2189 or email [email protected].
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