[Isolated hemorrhagic pleurisy due to Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive Staphylococcus aureus].

Panton-Valentine leucocidin is a major virulence factor produced by some strains of Staphylococcus aureus (SA-PVL). The best-described invasive infection is a necrotizing haemorrhagic pneumonia. Pleural effusion is not uncommon but is always associated with a parenchymal lesion.

[Hemorrhagic syndrome due to a heparin-like anticoagulant in a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus].

Introduction: In systemic lupus erythematosus, hemostasis disorders are mainly thrombotic, but more rarely hemorrhagic.

Case Report: A 25-year-old man presented with a macrophagic activation syndrome revealing a systemic lupus erythematosus, secondarily complicated by a hemorrhagic syndrome ; biological investigations revealed an increase thrombin time and an activated partial thromboplastin time, normalized by protamin neutralization in vitro, thus confirming the presence of a heparin-like anticoagulant. The hemostasis balance normalized after the specific treatment of lupus.

[Gastroparesis may be the cause of unexplained dyspepsia in patients with primary Sjögren syndrome].

Introduction: Upper digestive symptoms may be present in up to 50% of patients with primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS). We report a retrospective cohort of gastroparesis in a population of pSS presenting unexplained dyspepsia. Delayed gastric emptying was defined by a gastric emptying time above 113min or by a retention percentage at 4h more than 10% on scintigraphy.

Steroid-sparing effect and toxicity of dapsone treatment in giant cell arteritis: A single-center, retrospective study of 70 patients.

Although a glucocorticoid (GC)-sparing strategy is needed for patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA) suffering from refractory disease or serious treatment-related complications, evidence of efficacy in this setting of immunosuppressive drugs and biotherapies is lacking. Herein, we evaluated the GC-sparing effects and tolerability of addition of dapsone (DDS) to prednisone therapy in patients with GCA. We retrospectively assessed data on 18 GCA patients who received DDS as a first-line treatment (DDS-1 group) and 52 patients who received it as a second- or third-line treatment for refractory GCA, with or without excessive GC-related toxicity (DDS-2 group).

Contribution of dot-blot assay to the diagnosis and management of myositis: a three-year practice at a university hospital centre.

Objectives: Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are heterogeneous autoimmune diseases with wide clinical spectrum that may lead to delayed diagnosis. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of IIM-specific dot-blot assay on diagnostic process of patients presenting with muscular or systemic symptoms evocating of IIM.

Methods: We collected all the prescriptions of an IIM specific dot-blot assay (8 autoantigens including Jo-1, PL-7, PL-12, SRP, Mi-2, Ku, PM/Scl and Scl-70) over a 38-month period.

Venous thrombosis in patients with giant cell arteritis: Features and outcomes in a cohort study.

Objectives: To describe the features and outcomes of patients with giant cell arteritis who developed venous thrombosis.

Methods: Inception cohort study including 428 newly diagnosed patients of giant cell arteritis from 1976 to 2014. Clinical and biological data and outcomes were analysed by comparing patients with and without venous thrombosis.

Prostatic abscesses and severe sepsis due to methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus producing Panton-Valentine leukocidin.

Background: Prostatic abscesses are an uncommon disease usually caused by enterobacteria. They mostly occur in immunodeficient patients. It is thus extremely rare to have a Staphylococcal prostatic abscess in a young immunocompetent patient.

Spectrum of advice and curbside consultations of infectious diseases specialists.

Objectives: Curbside consultation (CC) of infectious diseases specialists for advice is very frequent but the corresponding workload has rarely been assessed. This activity is mostly oral (phone or direct contact) and poorly quantifiable because it is not charged. We had for aim to evaluate this activity in a French teaching hospital.

Campylobacter fetus infections.

Background: Campylobacter fetus infections usually occur in immunodepressed patients or patients presenting with diabetes mellitus or cancer. They rarely cause diarrhea but frequently cause bacteremia or vascular diseases. The therapeutic management is not well codified and fluoroquinolone resistance is continuously increasing.

Cardiac tamponade related to a coronary injury by a pericardial calcification: an unusual complication.

Background: Cardiac tamponade is a rare but severe complication of pericardial effusion with a poor prognosis. Prompt diagnosis using transthoracic echocardiography allows guiding initial therapeutic management. Although etiologies are numerous, cardiac tamponade is more often due to a hemopericardium.

Non-invasive detection of hepatic amyloidosis: FibroScan, a new tool.

Introduction: FibroScan, a non-invasive tool for measuring liver stiffness (LS), is not specific to liver fibrosis. Other extra-hepatic conditions may modify the LS value.

Objectives: Our aim was to examine whether amyloid deposition in the liver may modify LS.