The esophageal lesions in dermatomyositis. A correlation of radiologic and pathologic findings.

The occurrence of the phenomenon of pseudodiverticulation or sacculation of segments of the gastrointestinal tract found in cases of scleroderma has not been previously reported in dermatomyositis. Few well documented correlations of the radiologic and pathologic lesions of the esophagus in dermatomyositis have appeared in the literature. Feldman and Marshak (5) were able to find only 6 cases with radiologic abnormalities of the esophagus (3, 6, 11), to which they added one case of their own. These authors noted that esophageal changes in these 7 cases were minimal in character, and they stressed the occurrence of small bowel dilatation. Subsequently, additional series of patients with this condition demonstrating abnormal esophageal function have been reported (4, 13). Histologic descriptions of the esophagus in dermatomyositis have rarely appeared in the literature (8, 11, 12, 14, 17), and since the lesions to be described here have not been previously documented and represent major abnormalities, we co...