Sensitivity and specificity of ultrasonography in early diagnosis of metatarsal bone stress fractures: a pilot study of 37 patients.

Objective: To date, early diagnosis of stress fractures depends on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or bone scan scintigraphy, as radiographs are usually normal at onset of symptoms. These examinations are expensive or invasive, time-consuming, and poorly accessible. A recent report has shown the ability of ultrasonography (US) to detect early stress fractures.

Arthritis due to Mycobacterium xenopi: a retrospective study of 7 cases in France.

Background: Mycobacterium xenopi is a nontuberculous mycobacterium responsible for opportunistic and nosocomial infections, chiefly of the lung; few cases of bone and joint infection have been reported. From July 1989 through May 1993, an outbreak of 58 cases of nosocomial discitis due to M. xenopi infection following percutaneous nucleotomy occurred in a French hospital.

Prognostic value of early computed tomography in radiculopathy due to lumbar intervertebral disk herniation. A prospective study.

Objective: To prospectively evaluate the relationship between the early computerized tomography (CT) features of disk herniation and the clinical outcome in patients with recent-onset sciatic or femoral neuralgia treated conservatively. Early CT is often used, despite the absence of data on usefulness for predicting outcomes.

Methods: Of 78 patients with sciatica or femoral neuralgia of less than 1 month's duration, presumably due to a disk herniation, 75 were found by CT to have a disk herniation at the expected level.

Bronchiectasis in a patient with CREST syndrome.

Bronchiectasis is an uncommon pulmonary manifestation of systemic sclerosis (SSc). We report the case of a 70-year-old woman with CREST syndrome and vasculitis who developed multifocal symptomatic bronchiectasis. The bronchiectasis and immunosuppressive therapy precipitated severe lower respiratory tract infection, which was fatal within a few months.