Equivalence of a single dose (1200 mg) compared to a three-time a day dose (400 mg) of chondroitin 4&6 sulfate in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Results of a randomized double blind placebo controlled study.

Objective: Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of a single oral dose of a 1200 mg sachet of chondroitin 4&6 sulfate (CS 1200) vs three daily capsules of chondroitin 4&6 sulfate 400 mg (CS 3*400) (equivalence study) and vs placebo (superiority study) during 3 months, in patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Design: Comparative, double-blind, randomized, multicenter study, including 353 patients of both genders over 45 years with knee OA. Minimum inclusion criteria were a Lequesne index (LI) ≥ 7 and pain ≥ 40 mm on a visual analogue scale (VAS).

Efficacy and tolerability of paracetamol/tramadol (325 mg/37.5 mg) combination treatment compared with tramadol (50 mg) monotherapy in patients with subacute low back pain: a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, 10-day treatment study.

Background: In various pain studies, the single-dose combination of paracetamol/tramadol (PIT) was found to be more effective than either agent alone. PIT could provide benefit in patients with subacute low back pain (LBP).

Objective: This study compared the efficacy and tolerability of PIT with tramadol alone (T) in patients with subacute LBP and assessed whether, under comparable analgesic conditions, PIT would be better tolerated.

[Auto-inflammatory disease with hyperimmunoglobulinemia D of late onset].

Background: The term "auto-inflammatory diseases" encompasses a group of disorders characterised by febrile episodes of sudden onset associated with joint, abdominal, lymph node and cutaneous signs, each presenting a genetic and/or laboratory specificity allowing their identification. Polyclonal elevation of serum IgD is highly suggestive of hyper-IgD syndrome, a disease with autosomal recessive transmission that usually begins before the age of one year.

Case Report: We report the case of a 46-year-old woman presenting a disease since the age of 30 years clinically very similar to hyper-IgD syndrome except for ocular and pulmonary involvement.

Factors predicting long-term efficacy of Hylan GF-20 viscosupplementation in knee osteoarthritis.

Objectives: To describe the long-term effects of Hylan GF-20 viscosupplementation in patients with knee osteoarthritis and to identify factors predicting efficacy.

Methods: One hundred and fifty-five patients (80 women and 75 men; mean age, 69 years) with symptomatic knee osteoarthritis each received three intraarticular Hylan GF-20 injections. Effectiveness, safety, and satisfaction were evaluated 7-14 months later based on a physician's examination and a five-item questionnaire.

[Primary intramedullary spinal cord lymphoma in HIV patients. MRI aspects].

We report a case of an immunocompetent man who developed primary spinal intramedullary malignant lymphoma. This condition occurs in about 0.9 p.

[Magnetic resonance imaging in the warm and cold forms of algodystrophy of the foot].

Purpose: To report magnetic resonance imaging abnormalities in reflex sympathetic dystrophy of the foot.

Methods: Retrospective study of 22 algodystrophies of the foot, in warm phase in 17 cases, in cold phase in 5.

Results: Algodystrophy in warm phase: Bone medullary abnormalities were noted in 17 cases (decrease of signal intensity was found in T1 weighted images, increase of signal intensity in T2 weighted images, in T1 and T2 with fat-saturation, in T1 with gadolinium), located at the increased uptake technetium site in 16 cases.

[Blood prolactin under the effect of protirelin in spondylarthropathies. Treatment trial of 4 cases of reactive arthritis and 2 cases of psoriatic arthritis with bromocriptine].

Prolactin radioimmunoassay was carried out before and 15, then 30 min after intravenous infusion of protireline (0.2 mg) in 3 groups of male patients: 7 with reactive arthritis (HLA B27: 6; age: 25 +/- 6.3 yr), 13 with ankylosing spondylitis (HLA B27: 11; age: 33.

[Treatment of rheumatoid psoriasis with bromocriptine].

Non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs and/or gold salts were unsuccessful alone in providing symptom relief in three men with rheumatoid psoriasis. All three were treated with bromocriptine (5 mg/d in 2 doses) after verification of normal baseline and protirelin-stimulation prolactin levels. There was a beneficial effect in nocturnal pain relief, morning stiffness, the Lee and Ritchie scores and biological markers of inflammation.

Transient vertebral osteosclerosis due to osteoporosis.

Diffuse uniform vertebral osteosclerosis in vertebra affected by osteoporotic crush fracture, without osteonecrosis is reported. Multiple fissure-fractures were seen upon magnetic resonance imaging.

Stress fractures of the heads of the metatarsals. A new cause of metatarsal pain.

We report 16 cases of epiphyseal metatarsal stress fractures in 11 patients. Four patients had osteoporosis and two of these four were under fluoride therapy. Three of the fractures occurred upon resumption of weight-bearing.

[Effect of arterial pressure level evaluated using ambulatory measurement on the two year course of microalbuminuria of type 1 diabetic subjects].

The aim of the present study is the evaluation two years apart of the effect of initial blood pressure values on ambulatory blood pressure determinations on the rise of microalbuminuria in 77 Type 1 diabetic patients. At the beginning of the study, subjects with incipient nephropathy have a whole day systolic and diastolic blood pressure greater than those whose microalbuminuria is below than 30 mg/24 h (127.7 +/- 15.

[Respiratory involvement in ankylosing spondylarthritis: relations to alpha-1-antitrypsin phenotypes and tobacco consumption].

The distribution of alpha-1-antitrypsin phenotypes was similar in 555 controls and 98 patients with ankylosing spondylitis: the MM phenotype (including "main" MM subtypes, i.e., M2M2 and M3M3, and "secondary" MM subtypes) was found in 86% of subjects and "rare" phenotypes combining M, F, S, and Z in 14%.

Is hyperlipidaemia a contributing factor to algodystrophy (reflex sympathetic dystrophy)?

To appreciate hyperlipidaemia as a contributing factor to reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD), we have evaluated basal lipidic values (cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, triglycerides, apolipoproteins A1, B) and frequency of hypertriglyceridaemia (Turpin's diagnosis criteria) in 75 cases of RSD and in 75 paired controls. No difference exists in both groups with regard to frequency of hypertriglyceridaemia or basal lipidic values. These values seem independent of age, sex, duration of localization or etiology (traumatic or nontraumatic) of RSD.

[Plasma lipids in reflex sympathetic dystrophy. A study apropos of 90 cases].

Plasma levels of cholesterol, triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol, and apolipoproteins A1 and B were assayed in ninety patients (sixty-four male and twenty-six female) with reflex sympathetic dystrophy and in ninety controls matched for age, sex, and body mass index (BMI). No significant differences were found between the two groups for the proportions of patients with increased plasma cholesterol levels (6.6% versus 4.

[Bone density in differentiated cancer of the thyroid gland treated by hormone-suppressive therapy. Study based on 51 cases].

The effect of L-Thyroxine suppressive therapy (207.3 +/- 46.1 mcg/d) on lumbar spine bone density (BMD) was assessed in 51 patients thyroidectomized for carcinoma since 1 to 19 years (mean = 6 +/- 5.

[Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency in chronic inflammatory rheumatism and mechanical arthropathies. Preliminary results].

Alpha-1-antitrypsine (AAT) plasmatic level is higher (p less than 0.01) in 85 chronic inflammatory arthropathies than in 238 non inflammatory arthropathies (2.5+/0.