Dermatomyositis with panniculitis

Case 1. A 23-year-old white housewife presented with an erythematous violaceous rash on her face, neck, chest, and limbs, particularly over the dorsum of the hands and fingers; diffuse alopecia; and an inability to climb stairs and get up from a low seat. The clinical examination showed red to violaceous well-demarcated plaques on sun-exposed areas on the dorsum of the fingers and hands, with periungual erythema and telangiectasia; facial erythema; and heliotrope rash. There was also symmetric involvement of proximal muscles of the limbs. Laboratory examination showed hypergammaglobulinemia, elevated serum aspartate aminotransferase, and serum alanine aminotransferase; normal activities of creatinokinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and aldolase; an antinuclear antibody titer of 1:40 with a speckled pattern; negative anti-DNA and anti-Scl70; and normal serum complement levels (C3, C4, and CH50). Urinalysis results were within normal limits. Skin biopsy histopathology showed hyperkeratosis, edema of the upper epidermis, scattered inflammatory infiltrate, and focal accumulation of mucin in the form of acid mucopolysaccharides. Deep asymptomatic nodules on the inner upper limbs appeared later. Histopathology of these lesions showed focal areas of lobular panniculitis in the subcutaneous tissue, with lymphoplasmocytic inflammatory infiltrate without vasculitis (Figure 1 and Figure 2). Case 2. A 29-year-old white housewife presented with an erythematous violaceous rash on her face, neck, chest, and lower extremities. Clinical examination showed red to violaceous well-demarcated aching plaques on the internal surface of the thighs and tips of the fingers; periungual erythema and digital petechiae; Raynaud's phenomenon; and bilateral ulnar and cervical enlarged lymph nodes. Laboratory examination showed elevated serum aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, creatinokinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and aldolase; negative venereal disease research test results; an antinuclear antibody titer of 1:1024 with speckled pattern; negative anti-DNA and anti-Scl70; and normal serum complement levels (C3, C4, and CH50). Urinalysis results were within normal limits. Histopathology of the deep asymptomatic nodule on the inner left thigh showed lobular panniculitis with a scattered inflammatory infiltrate and diffuse fat necrosis, in addition to calcium deposition between the lipocytes and microcysts without vasculitis (Figure 3).