A cutaneous lesion associated with primary polymyositis.

Polymyositis is a nonsuppurating inflammatory disease of the striated muscle characterized clinically by the presence of proximal muscular weakness that is sometimes associated with pain. 1 This disease falls within a broader category known as idiopathic inflammatory myopathy, which includes the forms of myositis that are secondary to connective tissue disease and neoplasms and myositis with inclusion bodies. 2 Polymyositis is differentiated from dermatomyositis by the absence of the characteristic cutaneous lesions. 1