Icono-diagnostic case history as a tool for diagnosis: A case of severe (post-)infectious myopathy in an Austrian 17th-century carpenter?

Dear Editor,
The diagnosis and classification of muscular disorders is mainly an achievement of the last decades. The refinement of clinical, electrophysiological, microscopic, and molecular investigation has led to the identification of a broad spectrum of diseases with various aetiologies, clinical courses and outcomes [1]. The history of health, iconodiagnosis, and the identification of past pathological conditions in artworks, serves clinical medicine. It is an excellent didactical tool for medical students and is beneficial to the modern clinician as it can improve the knowledge of the origin of diseases and their evolution. This holds particularly true when diagnosing soft tissue pathologies and muscular disorders.