[Diabetic muscular necrosis: three Afrocaribbean cases].

BACKGROUND

Diabetic muscular infarction is an exceptional complication of diabetes mellitus. Patients with macro- and microvascular manifestations are mostly concerned. Muscular pain with swelling of the thigh is the main manifestation, sometimes associated with fever.

METHODS

We report here five cases of diabetic muscular infarction in three Afro-carribean patients with atypical clinical features. The surgical biopsy procedure allowed the diagnosis and ruled out pyomyositis, a more common bacterial disease on tropical condition.

CONCLUSIONS

This report of three cases of this exceptional disease in a small population seems more related to the high prevalence of diabetes mellitus in the French West Indies than to their ethnic origin.