TUBERCULOUS INFECTION OF SKELETAL-MUSCLE IN A CASE OF DERMATOMYOSITIS

A patient with dermatomyositis associated with carcinoma was treated w ith steroids and antibiotics for possible tuberculosis. Autopsy showed an overwhelming diffuse nongranulomatous infection of Mycobacterium t uberculosis involving only the skeletal muscles and one inguinal lymph node. The rare localization of tuberculosis to skeletal muscle in thi s case is possibly due to steroid immunosuppression and the humoral im mune attack on muscle blood vessels that is a part of dermatomyositis. (C) 1994 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.