Lobular Panniculitis in a Patient with Dermatomyositis

Yun Jung Kim; Wan-Sik Uhm; Tae-Hwan Kim; Chang Woo Lee; Chan Kum Park; Jae-Bum Jun

doi:10.4078/jkra.2008.15.1.76

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Kim, Uhm, Kim, Lee, Park, and Jun: Lobular Panniculitis in a Patient with Dermatomyositis

Original Article

J Korean Rheum Assoc 2008;15(1):76-80.

Published online: 20 March 2008

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4078/jkra.2008.15.1.76

Lobular Panniculitis in a Patient with Dermatomyositis

Yun Jung Kim, M.D., Wan-Sik Uhm, M.D., Tae-Hwan Kim, M.D., Chang Woo Lee, M.D.^∗, Chan Kum Park, M.D.^∗∗, Jae-Bum Jun, M.D.

Division of Rheumatology, Department of Internal Medicine, The Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Seoul, Korea

^∗Department of Dermatology, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

^∗∗Department of Pathology, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Received 4 April 2007 Accepted 24 January 2008

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Panniculitis is an inflammation within adipose tissue and most commonly affects the subcutaneous fat. Frequently, the panniculitis is associated with certain drugs and systemic diseases, such as various rheumatologic diseases, idiopathic Weber-Christian disease, infection and malignancy. Panniculitis in dermatomyositis (DM) is most commonly an incidental histopathologic finding that less commonly manifests a clinical component. We report the case of a woman with DM who presented with panniculitis as a clinical finding. A 51-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with diffuse nodular, indurated, painful erythematous plaques on buttocks, back and chest. 18-months ago, she had been diagnosed DM at our hospital. Her medication on admission was azathioprine. High-dose glucocorticoid was prescribed after the diagnosis of lobular panniculitis confirmed by skin biopsy. After then, the patient was getting better and discharged with the medication tapered.

Keywords: Lobular panniculitis, Dermatomyositis

References

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Fig. 1.

Initial skin findings were diffuse nodular, indurated, painful erythematous plaques with multifocal lipoatrophy on buttocks, back (A) and chest (B).

Fig. 2.

The skin biopsy shows lymphocytes infiltration in the subcutaneous fat lobule (H&E ×400).

Fig. 3.

After high dose steroid and azathioprine treatment, diffuse erythematous multiple plaques on buttocks, back (A) and chest (B) were decreased.

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