Arimoclomol in Sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis

Inclusion Criteria: * Meet the diagnostic criteria for definite or probable IBM (Griggs 1995) * Muscle function adequate for quantitative muscle testing * Age \> 50 years * Women must be postmenopausal or status post hysterectomy * For any patient currently taking medication for IBM, they must remain on current dosage for the extent of the study and last dosage change must be \> 30 days previous to enrollment Exclusion Criteria: * Presence of any one of the following medical conditions: diabetes mellitus or patients taking anti-diabetic medications, chronic infection, chronic renal insufficiency, cancer other than skin cancer less than 5 years previously, multiple sclerosis or prior episode or central nervous system demyelination, or other chronic serious medical illnesses * Presence of any of the following on routine blood screening: WBC \< 3000, platelets \< 100,000, hematocrit \< 30%, BUN \> 30 mg%, creatine \> 1.5 mg%, symptomatic liver disease with serum albumin \< 3 g/dl, PT or PTT \> upper range of control values * Women who are pregnant or lactating * History of non-compliance with other therapies * Coexistence of other neuromuscular disease * Drug or alcohol abuse within the last 3 months * Inability to give informed consent * Known bleeding disorder * Use of potentially renal toxic drugs * Prior difficulties with local anesthetic