A Woman with a Post-Vacation Rash

• Published in: Hospital practice (1995) 1997-04, Vol.32 (4), p.52-54
• Main Authors: Adelman, Harold M., Wallach, Paul M., Altus, Philip, Kanik, Keith, Truitt, Charlotte A., Rosenbach, Kevin, Brown, Mark, Matfin, Glenn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antirheumatic Agents - therapeutic use; Creatine Kinase - blood; Dermatomyositis - diagnosis; Dermatomyositis - drug therapy; Diagnosis, Differential; Female; Glucocorticoids - therapeutic use; Humans; Middle Aged; Prednisone - therapeutic use
• ISSN: 2154-8331; 2377-1003
• DOI: 10.1080/21548331.1997.11443462

A 52-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital with a rash, periorbital edema, dysphagia, and muscle weakness. The rash had appeared on the back of her neck nine months earlier, and because she had recently returned from a wildlife preserve on Assateague Island, Maryland, she assumed that it was due to tick bites. Over the next two months, the rash spread to her forehead, back, chest, and upper extremities, and scaly lesions appeared over metacar-pophalangeal joints. Initial laboratory tests indicated that her creatine kinase level was elevated. She was given prednisone and the level decreased. The rash also improved, but in the next two months the muscle weakness worsened. She became feverish and increasingly fatigued, depressed, and irritable. These later symptoms were attributed to the medication, but when she was weaned from it, her rash, weakness, and dysphagia increased. Over the ensuing months, she was given intramuscular injections of methotrexate (up to 25 mg/wk), followed by oral doses of hydroxychloroquine and azathioprine, but the symptoms persisted.