Identification of subgroups among fibromyalgia patients.

This paper presents some hypotheses concerning the identification of homogeneous subgroups among fibromyalgia (FM) patients in order to improve the management of the disease. It also reviews the available literature about this subject. Three methods for subgrouping are discussed according to clinical features, biomarkers, and gait analysis.

The interest of gait markers in the identification of subgroups among fibromyalgia patients.

Background: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a heterogeneous syndrome and its classification into subgroups calls for broad-based discussion. FM subgrouping, which aims to adapt treatment according to different subgroups, relies in part, on psychological and cognitive dysfunctions. Since motor control of gait is closely related to cognitive function, we hypothesized that gait markers could be of interest in the identification of FM patients' subgroups.

Effect of fatigue on stride pattern continuously measured by an accelerometric gait recorder in middle distance runners.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to analyze the continuous changes in stride patterns of athletes running at speed elicited VO(2max).

Methods: Six male sub-elite middle-distance runners carried out a constant track running test to exhaustion (time to exhaustion: 409+/-71 s) at their maximal aerobic speed (17.4+/-1.

Gait disorders in patients with fibromyalgia.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare gait in patients with fibromyalgia and in matched controls.

Methods: Measurements must be obtained in patients with fibromyalgia, as the evaluation scales for this disorder are semi-quantitative. We used a patented gait analysis system (Locometrix Centaure Metrix, France) developed by the French National Institute for Agricultural Research.

[Analysis of gait disorders in Parkinson's disease assessed with an accelerometer].

The objective of this study was to analyse stabilized gait disorders in newly diagnozed Parkinson patients using an accelerometric device, which had been previously validated for human locomotion analysis (Auvinet et al., 1999), and to compare Parkinson's gait variables with those obtained in a matched normal population (same gender, age, height and weight). The patient group included 22 subjects (women: 9, men: 13; age: 69+/-9 y; height: 164+/-9 cm; weight: 71+/-15 kg) with motor score from 4 to 59 (mean: 23.

Reference data for normal subjects obtained with an accelerometric device.

We collected gait analysis data for 282 healthy adults and elderly people (144 women and 138 men aged 20-98) using an accelerometric device, whose reproducibility (intra-tester and inter-testers) has been validated for gait studies. The subjects walked at their own speed along a corridor (40 m). Stride frequency (SF) (after correction for height), step symmetry (Sym), stride regularity (Reg), and vertical harmonic (slope) were all independent of age or gender.

Echocardiographic assessment of the interventricular delay of activation and correlation to the QRS width in dilated cardiomyopathy.

The aim of the study was to define criteria for left ventricular pacing in dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) using an echocardiographic evaluation of interventricular electromechanical delay (IMD) and a correlation of IMD to QRS duration. Standard 12-lead ECG and echocardiography with pulsed Doppler tissue imaging (DTI) were recorded in 35 DCM patients (mean age 58 +/- 11 years) with QRS duration from narrow (80 ms) to broad (222 ms) patterns. The timefor left ventricular activation was evaluated from the onset of QRS to the onset of aortic flow (Q-Ao) by standard pulsed Doppler (SP) or to the onset of mitral annulus systolic wave (Q-Mit) (DTI).

[Phase II trial evaluating the effect of megestrol acetate-prednisolone combination in the treatment of anorexia during the palliative-care phase of lung cancer].

Objectives: Anorexia is one of the most frequent complaints in patients who have reached the palliative-care phase of lung cancer. Megestrol acetate (or medroxyprogesterone acetate) and corticosteroids have been used with success, but the effect of their combination remains unknown. We conducted a phase II trial to assess the impact of combination therapy.

Accelerometric gait analysis for use in hospital outpatients.

Objectives: To provide clinicians with a quantitative human gait analysis tool suitable for routine use.

Methods: We evaluated the reproducibility, sensitivity, and specificity of gait analysis based on measurements of acceleration at a point near the center of gravity of the body. Two accelerometers held over the middle of the low back by a semi-elastic belt were used to record craniocaudal and side-to-side accelerations at a frequency of 50 Hz.

[Importance of urinary methylhistamine measurements during allergy provocation tests].

Methylhistamine, histamine's metabolite, was measured in urine by radio-immuno-assay in 79 provocation test. Six of them were positive with clinical symptoms. All of the six were associated with a significant increase of urinary methylhistamine (UMH).

Effects of some chelating agents on bismuth absorption in the rat.

Bismuth encephalopathies appeared in the mid-seventies in France and concerned about 1,000 people and led to a fatal outcome in 70 cases. Responsibility of Bi was clearly confirmed by the disappearance of the intoxication after prescription of drugs containing Bi had been more tightly regulated. Since the implication of a substance increasing the intestinal absorption of Bi has been suspected, we studied the concentrations of Bi in the tissues of rats who had been treated with bismuth nitrate basic 400 mg/kg per d for one month with and without an intake of a chelating agent added to the drinking water at a concentration of 10 mmol/l.

The distribution of elements in the tissues of Watanabe Heritable Hyperlipidemic Rabbits.

A deficiency or an excess of some elements in the diet is reported to modify the concentration of cholesterol in plasma, and, conversely, a reduction of cholesterol in the diet decreases zinc in plasma. We have studied the distribution of elements Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, Zn, S, P, and Mn in the tissues, plasma, heart, aorta, lung, liver, spleen, kidney, thymus, and brain of New Zealand White rabbits (NZW) and of Watanabe Heritable Hyperlipidemic rabbits (WHHL). The WHHL rabbits had a massive hypercholesterolemia (7.

Pharmacokinetics of desferrioxamine and of its iron and aluminum chelates in patients on peritoneal dialysis.

We have studied the pharmacokinetics of desferrioxamine (DFA), ferrioxamine (FeA) and aluminoxamine (AlA) in patients with chronic renal failure on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) after 10 mg/kg (15.24 mumol/kg) body weight desferrioxamine (DESFERAL) administration by intramuscular and intraperitoneal routes. The results show an easy exchange of DFA between the plasma and the peritoneal fluid regulated by the relative concentrations of DFA in the two compartments.

Pharmacokinetics of desferrioxamine and of its iron and aluminium chelates in patients on haemodialysis.

We have used a new analytical micromethod to study the pharmacokinetics of desferrioxamine and its aluminium chelates in patients with chronic renal failure on haemodialysis. Desferrioxamine (Desferal, CIBA, Basle) was given by 1-h infusion just after the haemodialysis at 20, 40, 80 mg/kg body wt. and during the first and the last hour of the haemodialysis at 40 mg/kg.

Pharmacokinetics and renal elimination of desferrioxamine and ferrioxamine in healthy subjects and patients with haemochromatosis.

1 Desferrioxamine mesylate (DM) (10 mg kg-1 = 15.24 mumol kg-1) was given by intramuscular injection to five healthy subjects and to six patients with haemochromatosis, after informed consent. 2 Desferrioxamine (DFA), ferrioxamine (FeA), aluminoxamine (AlA), aluminium (Al) and iron (Fe) were measured in plasma, before and 10, 20, 30, 60 min and 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 h after DM injection and in urine collected over a 6 h period the day before and the day of administration.

Blood plasma fluoride in haemodialysed patients.

Blood plasma fluoride was determined in 15 chronic haemodialysed patients (60.2 +/- 7.2 yr old) before and after a 4-h dialysis using dialysates with very low fluoride level, and in two control groups, the first of 20 healthy younger subjects (45.

[Plasma catecholamine concentrations during exercise in the untrained subject and in the sportsman].

Plasma noradrenaline (NA) and adrenaline (A) concentrations were measured by high liquid pressure chromatography in five untrained subjects and in five well-trained rowers during an exercise test on bicycle ergometer. Blood samples were collected, via a venous catheter, at rest, after standing 5 minutes, at maximal work level and at 5, 10, 20 minutes of post-exercise. Plasma NA and A concentrations at rest and after 5 minutes of standing were similar in the two groups.

[Tissue binding of orally administered bismuth in the rat. Effect of the digestive microbial flora].

Strains of E. coli and Str. faecalis, which do not darken in the presence of Bismuth in vitro, and which had been previously isolated from faeces of patients having presented bismuthic myoclonic encephalopathy, were implanted in the digestive tract of axenic rats.

Enhanced bismuth digestive absorption in rats by some sulfhydryl compounds: nmr study of complexes formed.

In a preliminary paper [Thérapie 34, 397 (1979), we showed that cysteine enhances bismuth digestive absorption in rats. In this paper, we have studied in rats the effects of various thiol compounds (mercaptopropionic acid, penicillamine, cysteine, homocysteine, 2-mercaptoethylamine, mercaptoethane) and nonthiol compounds (methionine, serine, alanine) orally administered on the absorption and elimination of bismuth also given orally. Bismuth was measured in blood and urine by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrophotometry.