Clinical trials

Myositis is an inflammatory disease of the skeletal muscles that can be caused by infections, autoimmune diseases, or medications. Early diagnosis of these conditions is essential for optimal treatment. Anatomic pathology is the conventional method used to analyze muscle lesions, but it requires several weeks to obtain results. Full-field optical coherence tomography (OCT), a non-invasive imaging technique, could offer advantages in terms of speed and resolution for visualizing muscle inflammation. This research project compares histological pathology and full-field OCT for the analysis of muscle biopsies from healthy individuals and patients suspected of having myositis. The aim of this study is to establish an OCT reference standard by analyzing control muscle biopsies and then comparing muscle inflammation in confirmed cases of myositis. The advantages and limitations of both methods will also be evaluated.

Primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS) is a systemic autoimmune disease that mainly affects the exocrine glands leading to severe dryness of mucosal surfaces, principally in the mouth and eyes. The other clinical manifestations are fatigue and musculoskeletal pain. Diagnosis of pSS associates clinical abnormalities with specific antibodies (Ro/SSA and La/SSB antibodies) or histopathological criteria of a minor salivary gland biopsy (the presence and number of lymphocytic focus, as well as chronicity findings like acinar atrophy, ductal dilatation or fibrosis). Apart from its variable sensitivity, one of the weaknesses of minor salivary gland biopsy is the delay in obtaining the result due to the time required to prepare the sample for histological analysis. Our group recently demonstrated the use of full-field optical coherence tomography (FF-OCT) to visualize structural changes associated with the inflammatory processes in Giant Cell Arteritis (temporal artery biopsy examination). It may suggests a further use of dynamic FF-OCT of minor salivary gland biopsy to visualize structural changes associated with the lymhocytic focus to ensure rapid on-site diagnosis of pSS.