Polymyositis & Dermatomyositis Support Group

Polymyositis (PM) is a type of chronic inflammation of the muscles (inflammatory myopathy) related to dermatomyositis and inclusion body myositis. The inflammation is predominantly of the endomysium in polymyositis, whereas dermatomyositis is characterized by primarily perimysial inflammation.

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Muscles & Bones
/ Polymyositis & Dermatomyositis Support Group

Vitiligo? Loss of pigment?

Sarah504
Sarah504
Anyone else dealing with this? I'm not sure if it was a side effect from Plaquenil, but it seems to have gotten worse or become more noticable after I stopped taking the Plaquenil.
nanny1611
nanny1611
My mother had vitiligo, and it was progressive. She tried to stay out of the sun, and she used make-up (liquid foundation) to cover the white areas of her skin that could be seen by others (such as on her face and arms). Vitiligo is autoimmune, but can have different causes. For my mom, she had white spots wherever she put pressure. For instance, she rubbed her eyes a lot, so she had white areas around both eyes. Also, she was a beautician and handled chemicals. So that might be why her hands (esp. her fingers) turned white. My mother was not on medication, so that was not a trigger for her. Don't know about your situation though. Here are a couple web links for more info. Hope they help.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/245081.php
http://www.medicinenet.com/vitiligo/article.htm
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vitiligo/DS00586
Sarah504
Sarah504
Thanks for the info I will check it out. Doc was not even a little bit helpful ;-P she didn't give me any advice or info just said it's inflammation from the DM but it's very obviously not just that... And after looking up vitiligo on wikipedia I am meeting all the criteria... time for a new dermatologist
deleted_user
deleted_user
Sarah, you need to find a really good medical dermatologist, not one focused on making the population perfect as in the cosmetic only dermatologist.

they can be hard to find, Major medical centers tend to have more medical dermatologists than local spots. Good luck to you. Mine is great, but he is across the US at Stanford...

Shawna