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Course: Erythroderma in a Patient With Thymoma-Associated Myasthenia Gravis

CME Credits: 1.00

Released: 2024-01-03

A woman in her 30s with myasthenia gravis diagnosed at age 27 years presented to the emergency department with severe erythroderma over the past 2 months. She had excision of a thymoma 10 years before, which was classified as type B2 according to the World Health Organization histologic classification system. She reported severe pruritus in the affected area. She had no history of skin diseases, allergies, or cardiovascular disease. Medications for the patient’s myasthenia gravis included prednisone tablets (20 mg daily), tacrolimus (1.5 mg twice per day), pyridostigmine bromide (30 mg daily), and losartan potassium (50 mg daily) for hypertension. On presentation, the patient’s temperature was 37.8 °C; heart rate, 120 beats/min, blood pressure, 120/65 mm Hg; and oxygen saturation levels, 97% on room air. On physical examination, the confluent erythema with scales involved more than 95% of body surface area, including the patient’s head, trunk (Figure 1A), and extremities, but results on mucosal examination were unremarkable. Laboratory testing results revealed whole white blood cell count of 12,200/?L (81.6% neutrophils; to convert to ×109/L, multiply by 0.001); C-reactive protein levels, 5.58 mg/dL (to convert to mg/L, multiply by 10.0); aspartate aminotransferase levels, 0.7 µkat/L (to convert to IU/L, multiply by 0.0167); alanine aminotransferase levels, 45 IU/L (to convert to µkat/L, multiply by 0.0167); and lactate dehydrogenase levels, 454 IU/L (to convert to µkat/L, multiply by 0.0167). Skin biopsy from the abdomen was performed for histopathologic examination (Figure 1B).


Educational Objective
Based on this clinical scenario and the accompanying image, understand how to arrive at a correct diagnosis.


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