hi there. I don't want to be misleading either way that is that it's better than it is or that it's worse than it is. Conventional wisdom with IBM has been that it only affects striated muscle but I think this is wrong.I'm having difficulty with respiration at night and this has been effectively addressed with a bi-pap machine. My respiratory specialist sees a lot of people with muscle disorders and she suggested that my weakness was an obvious result of my IBM. Again I was surprised by this because the conventional wisdom was that respiration is not commonly seen as a symptom or complication. since then, I have spoken to a number of patients with IBM who have had similar respiratory involvement. This is why I said that the smooth muscle was less affected than the striated (not all IBM patients develop this) but the implication is that respiratory function certainly can be involved. This is a case where the textbooks are a step behind the actual patients who have the disorder. in summary, an IBM patient should watch for complications in respiration which may emerge especially during sleep. I have a section on my webpage that explains all this.
I should have been a bit more specific when talking about cardiac muscle -- to my knowledge, there is no association between IBM and cardiac, so from what I have read, heart involvement should not be an issue.
Hope this clarifies things. Thanks, Bill.