ABSTRACT

A twenty six-year-old man applied to hospital with cramps, stiffness and weakness attacks triggered by exercise, and a muscle biopsy was performed with a probable diagnosis of myopathy. Histologically, subsarcolemmal vacuoles staining pale with hematoxylene eosin, red with modified Gomori's trichrome and intensive blue with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-tetrazolium reductase were seen. Vacuoles were observed in only type 2 fibers. They did not stain with succinic dehydrogenase. The patient was diagnosed to have tubular aggregate myopathy. Because these vacuoles are seen bright red with modified Gomori's trichrome and blue with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide-tetrazolium reductase, tubular aggregate myopathy may be confused with mitochondrial myopathies histologically.