Breast cancer with systemic manifestations mimicking Still's disease

We describe a case whose clinical features strongly suggested Still's disease, which led to the discovery of breast cancer. Our patient's symptoms consisting of fever, joint inflammation, pleuritis, and pericarditis, were initially resistant to high doses of steroids, and disappeared only after the cancer was removed, despite rapid tapering and cessation of steroid therapy. A paraneoplastic phenomenon seems probable.

[Periarteritis nodosa and parvovirus B19 infection]

The authors report a case of polyarteritis nodosa which coincide with serological conversion to parvovirus B19. After review of the literature, they recall the role of this virus in human pathology and also the role of different infectious agents in the PAN pathogenesis.

[Autoimmune thyroid diseases and Horton disease]

In a retrospective study of 115 patients with giant cell arteritis, 5 clinically patent autoimmune diseases were recorded; including 2 patients (1.8%) with Grave's disease and 1 with hypothyroidism. Among these patients, 46 had systematic assays of blood thyroid hormones and 39 were systematically investigated for anti-thyroid antibodies (ATAb):3 (6.5%) had biological hypothyroidism and 4 (10.3%) had ATAb. These findings were not significantly different from those of a control group of 39 age and sex matched patients.

[Multiple autoimmune syndrome]

Report a case of multiple auto-immune syndrome with auto-immune thyroiditis, Sjögren's syndrome, primary biliary cirrhosis. Moreover the patient suffered from neuropsychiatric symptoms and anti-cardiolipid antibodies were significantly elevated.

[Immunohistochemical study of lesions of temporal arteritis in Horton's disease]

Fourteen monoclonal antibodies were used to immunohistochemically label 22 temporal artery biopsy specimens taken from patients with temporal arteritis before treatment (n = 10), after 1.3 days of corticotherapy (n = 6) and after 12-30 days of steroids (n = 6). Histological sections from untreated patients revealed an inflammatory infiltrate comprised of approximately equal proportions of macrophages and T lymphocytes; the majority of the latter belonged to the CD4+ subset (the CD4+/CD8+ ratio varied from 2/1 to 4/1, depending upon the biopsy). These cells expressed high levels of HLA DR and low levels of interleukin-2 (IL2) receptors. A few B lymphocytes and plasmocytes were seen, mainly in the adventitia. Antigen-presenting cells (APC) were always found in the damaged media and natural killer cells (few in number) were sometimes present. Some macrophages were positively immunolabeled for IL6. A short, 1-to-3-day course of corticosteroids did not appreciably modify the lesions: cells remained highly activated, APC were seen in half the biopsies and IL6 immunolabeling persisted. The findings were essentially the same in treated but poorly controlled patients. Biopsies from 2 patients in clinical and biological remission revealed the persistence of an active immunological process. These observations indicate that the immunological process is poorly controlled by corticosteroid therapy.

[Renal hypertrophy studied by techniques of nuclear medicine in post-nephrectomy patients]

Study of group of 61 patients, nephrectomized as a result of various diseases and who before and three months after surgery underwent blood pressure, effective renal plasma flow (EPFF) and unilateral renal function determinations in order to verify the compensating ability of the remaining kidney. Effective renal plasma flow was determined by a single injection and removal of six serial blood samples with 125-I-Hippuran. Unilateral renal function was determined from the relative uptake of 99mTc-DMSA 24 hours after injection. The patients were divided into four groups according to their overall and unilateral renal function as well as the presence or absence of hypertension. Patients with normal EPFF and symmetrical renal function showed a significantly increase in the function of the remaining kidney after surgery (p < 0.001). Patients with normal or slightly reduced EPFF (< 10%) and highly asymmetrical unilateral function as well as those with decreased EPFF (> 10%) and symmetrical or asymmetrical unilateral renal function did not increased the function of the remaining kidney after nephrectomy, and hypertensive patients whose blood pressure returned to normal values after nephrectomy had a decreased function of the remaining kidney after surgery (< 0.001). It is concluded that it is possible to predict the functional behaviour of the remaining kidney after nephrectomy, and that the compensating ability will basically depend on the previously existing (overall and unilateral) renal function as well as the presence or absence of hypertension.

[Isolated inflammatory syndrome: think of benign tumors of the liver]

The authors report seven cases of benign tumors of the liver revealed by elevated acute phase reactants. They show that these elevated acute phase reactants are not linked with a particular histological diagnosis, the presence of tumor necrosis and that they disappear with the chirurgical cure of the tumor.

Twelve cases of pituitary apoplexy

In 12 cases of pituitary apoplexy, a preexisting unsuspected adenoma was found. The initial manifestations were sudden onset of headache (12 patients), signs of meningeal irritation (10) with fever (four), altered consciousness (12), and ophthalmologic disturbances (eight). The diagnosis was retrospective in three cases. Radiologic investigations were always suggestive if carefully considered. The plain skull roentgenograms, in particular, showed an enlarged sella turcica in 11 cases. Three patients had prolactin adenomas, and nine had nonfunctional adenomas. Medical treatment was successful in only three patients; surgery was performed in 10 cases by means of a sublabial transseptal microsurgical approach. Postoperative neurologic complications were serious in two cases. Endocrine insufficiencies were common: eight cases of permanent panhypopituitarism, two cases of pluritropic anterior pituitary dysfunction, and three cases of persistent hyperprolactinemia.

The effects of cardioversion and defibrillation on left ventricular systolic function

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the left ventricular systolic function behavior after cardioversion and defibrillation. The study included 18 adult patients who had direct current cardioversion or defibrillation performed for conversion of spontaneous or induced arrhythmias. All patients were submitted to a careful medical evaluation and an M-mode echocardiogram before cardioversion or defibrillation. The clinical and echocardiographic evaluations were repeated immediately after, and 6 and 12 h following the countershock. Six hours after cardioversion or defibrillation a statistically significant (p = .04) decrease in contractility (circumferential fiber shortening and ejection fraction) was observed without significant changes in preload (end diastolic volume), heart rate or afterload (end systolic stress and diastolic arterial pressure). Within 12 h, the left ventricular systolic dysfunction disappeared. The impairment of systolic function was independent of the amount of energy used, the type of arrhythmia, the rhythm after cardioversion or defibrillation and the etiologic cardiac diagnoses. There was a significant (p = .03) direct, negative and linear correlation between left ventricular systolic indices (ejection fraction and circumferential fiber shortening) before the countershock and the amount of decrease in systolic function after the countershock. In spite of the fact that most patients had a low ejection fraction, none of them presented clinical signs of heart failure. Defibrillation and cardioversion produce a transient decrease in cardiac contractility which is independent of the amount of energy used and does not produce clinical signs of heart failure.

Concurrent temporal arteritis and Churg-Strauss syndrome

We describe the case of a 41-year-old man who presented with clinical and histopathologic evidence of temporal artery lesions associated with the Churg-Strauss syndrome. Pathological examination of the temporal artery showed panarteritis without giant cell formation or fibrinoid necrosis. We review the world literature concerning the vasculitides with features that overlap giant cell arteritis (GCA) and polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) and classify into 2 sub-groups PAN with unusual temporal artery localization and GCA with variably disseminated arterial injuries. These cases emphasize the fact that not all arteritis involving the temporal arteries is GCA. Only 3 cases with temporal artery involvement and concurrent Churg-Strauss syndrome have been published.

[Death in Horton disease. Prognostic factors]

The authors reported causes of death and searched for prognosis factors in Giant Cell Arteritis (GCA). The diagnosis was confirmed by temporal biopsy in all cases. Fourteen patients died during treatment; thirty-six patients had completely recovered (follow up > 6 months after withdrawal of steroid therapy). The commonest causes of death were cardiovascular (n = 7) and digestive (n = 4); they occurred after an average of 195 days of treatment, half of them during the first three months. One death was due to GCA (autopsy) and five deaths were attributed to the treatment with corticosteroids. The prognosis factors were searched for by comparing age, sex, clinical signs, laboratory data before treatment, past medical history in the both series; further more initial dose of Prednisone and the dose after 180 days of steroid therapy were compared in the two groups. The adverse prognosis factors revealed by this study were: advanced age (p < 0.01), previous ischaemic heart disease (p < 0.05) and higher dose of corticosteroids administered at 6 months of treatment (< 0.01).

Diagnosis of brain death: superiority of perfusion studies with 99Tcm-HMPAO over conventional radionuclide cerebral angiography

The use of technetium-99m hexamethyl-propyleneamine oxime (99Tcm-HMPAO) in the diagnosis of brain death has been evaluated in 41 studies of 37 patients with severe brain injury, who were under the effect of drugs or when other diagnostic methods were equivocal. HMPAO studies were compared with conventional radionuclide angiography performed simultaneously by intravenous administration of HMPAO as a bolus. The ages of patients ranged from 4 months to 75 years. Dynamic flow images and 5-min static uptake images were acquired following bolus injection of 555 Mbq of 99Tcm-HMPAO. All patients showing no brain uptake were confirmed as brain-dead by standard clinical criteria, with no contradictory cases in the static study. In addition, all patients who were not brain-dead showed HMPAO uptake at least in the brainstem. Dynamic flow images were equivocal in five patients, four of whom had no uptake on static images and clinically confirmed brain death. In addition, two other cases showed "mismatched" dynamic and static images: in one case no perfusion was observed on flow images but uptake restricted to the posterior fossa was seen on static images; the other case showed perfusion on the dynamic study and static imaging revealed hemispheric uptake with no posterior fossa uptake. Static perfusion 99Tcm-HMPAO studies offer advantages over conventional brain scintigraphy, better results being due to adequate assessment of posterior fossa activity and avoiding equivocal studies.