Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00916:reg:7
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2022L00916
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 7
Character Range: 1638–3409

7               Kind of injury, disease or death to which this Statement of Principles relates
(1)          This Statement of Principles is about dermatomyositis and death from dermatomyositis.
Meaning of dermatomyositis
(2)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, dermatomyositis:
(a)          means a chronic inflammatory disease characterised by inflammatory skin changes, usually accompanied by progressive and symmetric skeletal muscle weakness; and
(b)          includes amyopathic dermatomyositis.
                Note 1: Typical skin changes include a heliotrope rash, and red or violet, sometimes scaly, slightly raised papules that erupt on the finger joints or other bony extremities (Gottron papules). Typical muscle disease involves progressive and symmetrical weakness of the limb-girdle muscles, with or without dysphagia and respiratory muscle weakness.
                Note 2: The diagnosis may be confirmed by elevation of serum levels of muscle-associated enzymes, biopsy, imaging or the presence of myositis-associated antibodies.

                Note 3: Amyopathic dermatomyositis is a variant of dermatomyositis that is characterised by the typical skin rash but without muscle abnormalities. Clinically, amyopathic dermatomyositis may be hypomyopathic, with no objective weakness but with evidence of subclinical muscle involvement on testing, or amyopathic, with no evidence of muscle involvement on examination or testing.
Death from dermatomyositis
(3)          For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, dermatomyositis, in relation to a person, includes death from a terminal event or condition that was contributed to by the person's dermatomyositis.
Note: terminal event is defined in the Schedule 1 - Dictionary.