Juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM) is a rare idiopathic chronic inflammatory disease that affects mainly muscle and skin. Cutaneous lesions may persist despite successful treatment of myositis. Of note, topical tacrolimus is a new immunosuppressive agent that has been used to treat atopic dermatitis with few reports in pediatric inflammatory myopathies. Three JDM patients (two males) were described, current age from 5.7 to 10.6 years. The initial therapy administered for these patients were: corticosteroid (oral in three and topical in one), antimalarial in three and methotrexate in two. All of them had refractory skin lesions (malar rash, extensive rash and/or cutaneous vasculitis) after significant improvement of muscle weakness. Topical tacrolimus 0.03% was used twice daily after failure of previous treatment. The features of lesions were evaluated according to extension and severity at start of drug and after 8 and 16 weeks. At the second evaluation (8 weeks), remarkably one patient had complete improvement of malar rash and extensive rash in limbs and trunk, and two had partial improvement of malar rash and cutaneous vasculitis. At the third evaluation (16 weeks), two patients had complete resolution of lesions and one had persistent malar rash and moderate lumbar and gluteus rash. In the last patient, the improvement of skin lesions was reached only after 16 weeks of cyclosporine use. None of them had adverse effects. Topical tacrolimus could be considered in JDM patients with refractory cutaneous manifestations. Further randomized controlled trials with this agent should be performed in this inflammatory disease.
topical tacrolimus; juvenile dermatomyositis; skin involvement
