Dr. Noda, et al reply

We appreciate the comments provided by Dr. Bhansing and colleagues1 in response to our article2. Recently, Bhansing, et al showed a significant 2-fold increase in the fascia thickness of the deltoid muscles on ultrasonography (US) in patients with dermatomyositis (DM) and polymyositis (PM) relative to healthy controls3. Additionally, they showed that the deltoid fascial thickness on US in patients with DM and PM was not associated with various clinical variables, including the disease duration, serum creatine kinase, the Health Assessment Questionnaire–Disability Index score, sex, antinuclear antibody, anti-Jo1, the subtype of idiopathic inflammatory myopathy, the clinical disease … Address correspondence to Dr. K. Noda, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, the Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishi-shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 105-8461, Japan. E-mail: knoda3353{at}jikei.ac.jp