[The eagle and the louse: typhus in the Grand Army].

How is it that lice, such a common parasite, have shaken the Napoleonic empire? This paper, based on medical literature and on proven facts, is going to tell the history of such a "war pestilence", a "contagious typhus".

MxA protein in capillary blood of children with viral infections.

Capillary blood of febrile children was lysed by using a lysis buffer containing ascorbic acid. MxA quantitation was performed by an immunochemiluminescent assay. The MxA values were significantly higher in capillary blood of infants with viral infections due to adenovirus (n = 5), rotavirus (n = 15), or respiratory syncytial virus (n = 28), than in capillary whole blood from infants with bacterial infections (n = 6) and healthy control patients (n = 20).

A human IFNGR1 small deletion hotspot associated with dominant susceptibility to mycobacterial infection.

The immunogenetic basis of severe infections caused by bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine and environmental mycobacteria in humans remains largely unknown. We describe 18 patients from several generations of 12 unrelated families who were heterozygous for 1 to 5 overlapping IFNGR1 frameshift small deletions and a wild-type IFNGR1 allele. There were 12 independent mutation events at a single mutation site, defining a small deletion hotspot.

The MxA protein levels in whole blood lysates of patients with various viral infections.

Interferon alpha (IFNalpha), a type I interferon, can be considered as a viral infection marker because this cytokine is induced during many viral infections. However, it is quite difficult to detect IFNalpha in sera. Investigations are interested in various intra-cellular IFNalpha-induced proteins as viral infection markers.

Bacterial pericarditis in infancy and childhood.

The authors report on a cooperative study of 43 cases of bacterial pericarditis observed in children. This disorder was suspected in patients with septicemia who developed symptoms and signs of pericarditis (precordial pain, muffled heart sounds, pericardial friction rub, cardiomegaly). Early diagnosis of this condition is now facilitated by echocardiography.

[Hydrocholecystitis in children and newborn infants. Apropos of 3 cases].

We report two cases of hydrocholecystitis in children and one in a neonate. One child had hepatitis A and the other had typhoid fever. A beta-hemolytic group B streptococcal infection was found in the neonate.

[Chronic diarrhea caused by VIP-secreting ganglioneuroblastoma in children. Apropos of a case with a review of the literature].

A literature review was conducted in relation to a case of chronic diarrhea associated with a VIP (vasoactive intestinal polypeptide) producing ganglioneuroblastoma (GNB), in an 18-month old female baby. This is a rare entity characterized by premonitory, persisting diarrhea, causing fluid and electrolyte changes typical of the WDHA syndrome, associating watery diarrhea, hypokalemia, and achlorhydia. Elevated VIP plasma levels are an indication for an echographic and/or CT-scan search for the causal secreting tumor.

[Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery. The form in infants].

Twenty-four cases of anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery are reported. These cases were collected over 27 years divided into three 9-year periods according to the years of the initial studies. The clinical aspects and diagnostic investigations (notably echocardiography, myocardial radioisotope imaging and various angiographic procedures) are reviewed; aortography seems to be, even now, the best exploratory method.