0000000000970421
AUTHOR
Peter F. Schmidt
Macrophagic myofasciitis in a 3-month-old child
Macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF) is a rare inflammatory myopathy which occurs after injection of aluminium-containing vaccines against hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis A virus, and tetanus toxoid. Most of the cases reported are from France and are adult patients. We report a rare case of MMF in a 3-month-old male child of Indian origin. He was immunized for HBV at birth after which he developed generalized hypotonia, and central nervous system and peripheral nervous system manifestations at 1 month of age. Muscle biopsy showed typical features of MMF and aluminium could be detected in the muscle biopsy macrophages by ultrastructural examination and LAMMA technique. Our case is the youngest …
July 2003: 62-year-old female with progressive muscular weakness
The July 2003 Case of the Month (COM). A 62-year-old female patient experienced progressive muscular weakness over the last ten years, involving shoulder and pelvic girdle muscles, paraspinal and facial muscles. A biopsy was taken from the left deltoid muscle where hepatitis vaccination had taken place 4 weeks previously. The specimen revealed macrophagic myofasciitis due to the injection of aluminium-bound vaccines. The finding can be reproduced experimentally by injecting vaccines in rats. The pathomechanism is supposed to involve immune stimulation due to long term persistence of the adjuvant. Macrophagic myofasciitis has been suggested to occasionally cause myopathy but is supposed to b…