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Todd D. Levine, MD

Arch Neurol. 2003;60:780-782.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

INTRODUCTION

Although Wagner¹ and Unverricht² are credited with the first descriptions of dermatomyositis in the late 1880s, Unverricht suggested that Virchow³ may have been the first one to recognize the clinical features of this disease: "It is interesting that Virchow, already in the year 1866 . . . observed a patient he described as spotted with a rash and who otherwise reminded him of polymyositis."

Wagner¹ also recognized an association between the rash and muscle weakness, but "was bent to incorporate the affection into the group of diseases of polymyositis and regarded it to a certain extent as the acutest form of the disease," not as a unique entity. It was not until Unverricht's seminal article in 1891² that the concept of an intimate connection between the rash and the muscle weakness became generally accepted and dermatomyositis and polymyositis became 2 distinct diseases.

With regards to the . . . [Full Text of this Article]