Necrosis of muscle with carcinoma: myositis or myopathy?
A man aged 59 years developed a rapidly progressive muscular weakness which within a few weeks involved almost the entire musculature. A carcinoma of the stomach was discovered at necropsy. The skeletal muscles showed widespread necrosis with minimal inflammatory reaction. The findings are compared with those in a woman of 51 with Hashimoto's thyroiditis who developed a slowly progressive weakness of her trunk muscles which after some months began to involve the limbs. Post-mortem examination revealed typical polymyositis with massive inflammatory infiltration and limited necrosis of muscle. We conclude that these two types of muscle disease are morphologically, and probably pathogenetically, different.
D001706:Biopsy; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000150:complications*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009132:Muscles / Q000473:pathology; D009135:Muscular Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D009220:Myositis / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D013967:Thyroiditis, Autoimmune / Q000150:complications