Phone-based telemonitoring of arterial hypertension versus usual care: the HOROSCOPE study.

The Horoscope trial aimed to assess the efficacy of home blood pressure (BP) telemonitoring (TLM) in controlling BP reduction in hypertensive patients compared with usual care. This is a multi-center, prospective randomized, parallel-group trial comparing TLM with usual care during a period of 6 months in patients with hypertension. We included 525 patients randomly assigned in a 1-1 ratio to telemonitoring (TLM group; n = 260) or usual care (control group; n = 265).

Impact of Home Mobile Phone-Based Telemonitoring in Preventing Exacerbations and Hospitalizations Among Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: An IMTEC Study.

COPD is a major public health problem due to its high morbidity and mortality. The evolution of COPD is marked by the occurrence of acute exacerbations (AECOPD). One of the major causes of AECOPD is non-adherence treatment.

Piroxicam and paracetamol in the prevention of early recurrent pain and emergency department readmission after renal colic: Randomized placebo-controlled trial.

Objective: Renal colic (RC) is a common urologic emergency often leading to significant pain and recurrent hospital visits. This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of piroxicam versus paracetamol in preventing pain recurrence and hospital readmission in patients treated for RC and discharged from the emergency department (ED).

Methods: A prospective, randomized, single-blind trial was conducted in four EDs.

Palmoplantar Psoriasis: Epidemiological and Clinical Features and Impact on Quality of Life.

Introduction: Palmoplantar psoriasis is a rare variant of psoriasis. Its impact on quality of life has been poorly investigated.

Objectives: Our aim was to investigate the prevalence of localized palmoplantar psoriasis (PPP), to assess its severity using the modified Palmoplantar Pustular Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (m-PPPASI), and to evaluate the correlation with the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI).

Magnesium Sulfate Versus Lidocaine as an Adjunct for Renal Colic in the Emergency Department: A Randomized, Double-Blind Controlled Trial.

Study Objective: We wished to determine whether the addition of magnesium sulfate (MgSO) or lidocaine to diclofenac could improve the analgesic efficacy in emergency department (ED) patients with acute renal colic.

Methods: In this prospective, double-blinded, randomized controlled trial of patients aged 18 to 65 years with suspected acute renal colic, we randomized them to receive 75 mg intramuscular (IM) diclofenac and then intravenous (IV) MgSO lidocaine, or saline solution control. Subjects reported their pain using a numerical rating scale (NRS) before drug administration and then 5, 10, 20, 30, 60, and 90 minutes afterwards.

Inflammatory Tinea Capitis Mimicking Dissecting Cellulitis in a Healthy Woman.

Introduction: Inflammatory tinea capitis (TC) is uncommon in adults.

Case Presentation: A 29-year-old healthy woman presented with a 2-year history of scalp alopecia with purulent discharge. Clinical, trichoscopic, and histological features and the negativity of a first fungal sampling were consistent with the diagnosis of dissecting cellulitis of the scalp.

Comparison of simulation and video-based training for acute asthma.

Background: Emergency medicine is particularly well suited to simulation training. However, evidence for the efficacy of simulation-based medical training remains limited especially to manage high-risk cases such as acute asthma.

Objective: The objective of our study was to compare the performance of high-fidelity simulation (HFS) and interactive video-case challenge-based training (IVC) for final-year medical students in the management of acute asthma.

Electric Fields in Catalysis: From Enzymes to Molecular Catalysts.

Electric fields underlie all reactions and impact reactivity by interacting with the dipoles and net charges of transition states, products, and reactants to modify the free energy landscape. However, they are rarely given deliberate consideration in synthetic design to rationally control reactivity. This Perspective discusses the commonalities of electric field effects across multiple platforms, from enzymes to molecular catalysts, and identifies practical challenges to applying them in synthetic molecular systems to mediate reactivity.

New-onset guttate psoriasis secondary to COVID-19.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), is associated with flares of psoriasis in patients with well-documented disease. Both viral infection and medications used for treatment, like hydroxychloroquine, were incriminated. Herein, we report the case of a 25-year-old male patient who presented a first-onset guttate psoriasis following a COVID-19 infection.

Addictive behaviors, cardiovascular and metabolic comorbidities in North African psoriatic patients: case-control study.

We propose to study the epidemiological aspects of North African psoriasis and determine the cardiovascular comorbidities and addictive behaviors associated with psoriasis. This is a North African case-control study which was conducted over a five year period (October 2008 through August 2013), involving 671 psoriatic patients and 1,242 controls identified in various Algerian, Tunisian and Moroccan university hospitals. For each patient, epidemiological characteristic, addictive behaviors, and cardiovascular pathologies associated with psoriasis were noted.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Diagnosis of Onychomatricoma: A Case Report.

Onychomatricoma (OM) is a rare benign tumour of the nail matrix characterized by specific clinical and histologic features. The main clinical signs are thickening of the nail plate, xanthonychia, overcurvature of the nail plate, and multiple splinter haemorrhages. The diagnosis is based on clinical, radiological and histopathological findings.

Failure to find evidence for deletion of LCE3C and LCE3B genes at PSORS4 contributing to psoriasis susceptibility in Tunisian families.

Background: Recently, it has been shown that a deletion in the late cornified envelope (LCE) gene cluster (LCE3C_LCE3B-del) is associated with susceptibility to psoriasis in European and Asian populations. However, no study of this deletion has been performed in the North African population. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether this deletion is associated with familial psoriasis in Tunisian population.

Family-based association study in Tunisian familial psoriasis.

Background: The pathogenesis of all forms of psoriasis remains obscure. Segregation analysis and twin studies together with ethnic differences in disease frequency all point to an underlying genetic susceptibility to psoriasis, which is both complex and likely to reflect the action of a number of genes.

Materials And Methods: In the present study, we performed a family-based association study, and a transmission dysequilibrium test using the PLINK program, in a set of seven Tunisian multiplex families using a panel of 96 single-nucleotide polymorphisms localized in several regions across the genome.

Genome-wide linkage scan for psoriasis susceptibility loci in multiplex Tunisian families.

Background: Psoriasis is a relapsing chronic inflammatory skin disease affecting all population groups, with a peak prevalence of 3% in northern European and Scandinavian caucasians. Epidemiological studies have implicated a genetic component to psoriasis. In the past 12 years multiple genome-wide linkage analyses have identified putative susceptibility loci on several chromosomes, with a major locus in the major histocompatibility complex region.

Association analysis of LCE3C-LCE3B deletion in Tunisian psoriatic population.

An association between a common deletion comprising the late cornified envelope LCE3B and LCE3C genes (LCE3C_LCE3B-del) and psoriasis has been reported in Caucasian and Asian populations. To investigate whether this deletion plays a role in the genetic of psoriasis in Tunisian population, we determined the LCE3C_LCE3B-del genotype in 180 Ps patients and 208 healthy controls from different regions of Tunisia. The LCE3B and LCE3C gene variant was determined in the patients through PCR amplification and the SPSS software package.

[Immunogenetics of psoriasis: update].

Background: Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease often benign, affecting 2-3% of the total world population. Psoriasis is a multifactorial disease.

Aim: To present recent advances in the immunologic mechanisms and susceptibility genes involved in the pathogenesis of psoriasis.

Risk factors for erysipelas of the leg in Tunisia: a multicenter case-control study.

Background: Risk factors for erysipelas (cellulitis) were rarely evaluated in controlled studies. Regional variations of these risk factors have never be assessed.

Objective: To assess risk factors for erysipelas of the leg in Tunisia.

[Etiologic factors of urinary lithiasis in Tunisian children].

Fifty-five Tunisian children with urinary stones, between the ages of 8 months and 15 years, underwent morphological and infrared spectrophotometric analysis of their stones. This study provides an approach to the aetiological profile of urinary stones in Tunisian children. The nucleus of the stones was composed of acidic ammonium urate in 48% of cases with a morphology suggestive of phosphorus deficiency associated with a history of diarrhoea.

[Video-assisted thoracic surgery of hydatid cysts of the lung in children].

10 children between 3 and 9 years old, have been operated on for an echinococcosis cyst of the lung, by a thoracoscopic procedure. It was a vomited cyst in 6 cases, a pyopneumocyst in 1 case, and a jung noncomplicated and univesicular cyst in 3 cases. The surgical procedure is described.

Post-traumatic pancreatic pseudocyst: non-operative conservative management--report on 3 cases.

The authors report on 3 cases of post-traumatic pancreatic pseudocysts in children. Complete healing occurred with non-operative conservative treatment and total parenteral nutrition. Daily follow-up with clinical evaluation, abdominal ultrasound and lab exams are detailed under definite criteria of selection and follow-up.

[An exceptional combined malformation: duplication of the lower urinary tract, the vulva and the posterior intestine].

The authors report the case of a 6 year old girl with bladder duplication, urethral duplication, genital system duplication associated with colonic duplication and low double anorectal anomalies. This patient presented two hemivertebrae at T9 and T11. This girl died a few days after admission from internal obstruction and septicemia.