These medications are effective in the majority of cases and are usually well tolerated. Cytotoxic medications should not be used to treat only lupus arthritis. It is also important that a person learn joint protection procedures to be able to rest his or her joints during flares of lupus arthritis. This damage may result in muscle weakness and loss of strength unless early, appropriate treatment is given. Inflamed muscles may not only be painful, but may also be tender to the touch.
Muscle weakness is the most common symptom of lupus myositis.
Pain in the small muscles of the hand or weakness of the grip are not symptoms of SLE myositis. However, nerves as well as muscle fibers can be caught up in the inflammatory process and, occasionally, weakness of the wrists and hands or the ankles and feet may occur as a result of nerve damage. The diagnosis of SLE myositis is relatively straightforward. Thus, tests for these chemicals in the blood are abnormal in SLE myositis. Such tests are therefore useful in the diagnosis of SLE myositis, and in following the course of the disease and its response to therapy.