A 47-year-old Caucasian man presented to the rheumatology clinic to re-establish care
after he had been lost to follow-up. He had been previously diagnosed with polymyositis
(PM) and diffuse systemic sclerosis (SS) overlap syndrome. Clinical examination revealed
extensive hard subcutaneous nodules on the patient's hands, elbows, shoulders, knees,
hips, buttocks and back. Plain radiography of the hips showed extensive calcinosis
cutis (Figures 1 and 2). Blood tests revealed elevated muscle enzymes and positivity for antinuclear antibody
1:2560 nucleolar pattern and anti-PM-Scl antibodies. Tests for anti-Scleroderma-70
and anti-RNA polymerase III antibodies were negative. Antinuclear matrix protein 2
autoantibodies, which are well described in PM and linked with calcinosis, were negative
as well. The patient was started on prednisone and mycophenolate mofetil, which helped
normalize the muscle enzymes but did not impact the calcinosis cutis.
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References
- Calcinosis cutis in autoimmune connective tissue diseases.Dermatol Ther. 2012; 25: 195-206
- Calcinosis cutis occurring in association with autoimmune connective tissue disease: the Mayo Clinic experience with 78 patients, 1996-2009.Arch Dermatol. 2012; 148: 455-462
- Clinical and serologic correlates of anti-PM/Scl antibodies in systemic sclerosis: a multicenter study of 763 patients.Arthritis Rheumatol. 2014; 66: 1608-1615
Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 12, 2018
Accepted:
June 5,
2018
Received:
March 28,
2018
Footnotes
☆The author has no financial or other conflicts of interest to disclose.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Southern Society for Clinical Investigation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.