ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Dermatomyositis belongs to an infrequent group of diseases predominantly found in patients older than 40 years old and is characterized by dermal and muscular findings. This disease presents itself as proximal, ascending and symmetric weakness and typical dermatosis with findings such as elevated muscle enzymes, altered electromyography and typical changes in muscle biopsy; as of today, the etiology of the disease in unknown. The COVID-19 vaccine has been a fundamental tactic to achieve control of the coronavirus (SARS CoV2), and it's clear that the benefits of getting the vaccine overweight the risks that might come along with it. Although rare, all adverse effects should be reported, this could help us to understand the elusive pathophysiology of inflammatory idiopathic myopathy. CASE PRESENTATION: In this text we will describe the case of a patient with dermatomyositis who was vaccinated against SARS CoV2 with BNT162b2 mRNA (Pfizer-BioNTech), showing a temporal relation between the vaccination and the beginning of her symptoms. We realized all the diagnostic approach to the suspected disease including electromyography, muscle biopsy and laboratory findings, corroborating the diagnosis. The patient received standard treatment for this disease (steroid therapy) and have a classic slow improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Although it´s not possible to confirm a direct correlation between the vaccine and the onset of the disease, we considered that there are enough data to suspect that this could be a trigger event and therefore should always be considered a possible cause for a case of inflammatory idiopathic myopathy.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Cervicovaginal cytology as a follow-up study in women with a history of a cervical carcinoma treated with chemo-radiotherapy (CRT) plays an important role; however, the cytomorphological characteristics for the diagnosis of high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (H-SIL) in post-CRT patients have not been established. The aim of the study is to find the cytomorphological characteristics that support the diagnosis of H-SIL by conventional cytology in these patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study from 2009 to 2015, which includes patients with a diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma treated with CRT, who all have cervix cytology for follow-up and a later biopsy. RESULTS: We identified 82 cases, where the most frequent clinical stage was IIA1 to IIB with 26 cases (61.9%), the most common symptom was transvaginal bleeding (64.29%). The cytological characteristics that were statistically associated with the presence of a positive biopsy were the presence of a hemorrhagic background (45.2% vs. 12.5%, P = .007), high cellularity (45.2% vs. 15%, P < .001), disposition in groups/sheets (69% vs. 22.5%, P < .001), postradiotherapy changes at the background of the smear (73.8 vs. 50%, P < .001) and an increased nuclear/cytoplasmic ratio (100% vs. 22.5%, P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with CRT, the presence of specific features can help the diagnosis of H-SIL with excellent diagnostic performance.
