Chester V. Oddis, MD is a noted researcher in the clinical, epidemiological and serologic description of the idiopathic inflammatory myopathies. He has completed epidemiological studies on the incidence of polymyositis and dermatomyositis as well as longitudinal studies on functional disability in myositis patients. His focus has been in the autoantibody patterns in patients with inflammatory myopathy and their peculiar immunogenetic associations.

Dr. Oddis has written extensively on the diagnosis and management of patients with myositis. He has published and lectured on the use of novel immunosuppressive agents such as tacrolimus (formerly FK506) in the treatment of patients with refractory myositis. This represents the only reported experience of this particular drug in the pharmacologic treatment of inflammatory myopathy. In collaboration with the Department of Neurology, he has assessed the efficacy and utility of outpatient needle muscle biopsy in the diagnosis of inflammatory myopathy. This is important given the cost-containment focus of the current health-care market.