title: Mycobacterium chelonae infection presenting as recurrent cutaneous and subcutaneous nodules--a presentation previously diagnosed as Weber Christian disease.
abstract: Although the dermatologic community rarely uses "Weber-Christian Disease" as a diagnosis, it still appears in the internal medicine literature. Herein we present a patient with recurrent cutaneous and subcutaneous nodules who was initially treated with aggressive immunosupression for a presumptive diagnosis of Weber-Christian Disease. After more than a decade the patient was diagnosed with cutaneous Mycobacterium chelonea. This case is an excellent example of the difficulty in diagnosing mycobacterial infections and underscores the importance of having a high suspicion for infectious etiologies for unresponsive cutaneous eruptions in patients on immunosuppressive medications.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Davis; VA Medical Center.
authors.forename: Emanual
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Maverakis
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Forum B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fitzmaurice
authors.forename: Maxwell A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Fung
mesh_terms: D001706:Biopsy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009165:Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology; D016926:Mycobacterium chelonae / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D010201:Panniculitis, Nodular Nonsuppurative / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D012008:Recurrence