Sausage-like toe and heel pain: value for diagnosing and evaluating the severity of spondyloarthropathies defined by Amor's criteria. A retrospective study in 161 patients.

Aim: To evaluate the frequency of sausage-like toe and talalgia in spondyloarthropathies diagnosed by the 12 items of Amor's criteria; to study the frequency of a diagnosis which would be impossible without these two symptoms; and to study the correlations between Amor's criteria score and the clinical and biological symptoms in the presence of both of these.

Methods: Retrospective study of 161 cases (age, 38.8 +/- 13.

[Hip arthroplasty in genetic hemochromatosis. Report of 5 cases].

Introduction: Half of the patients with genetic hemochromatosis will have arthritis. Two of these articular involvements are well-known: the arthropathy involving the phalangeal and the metacarpophalangeal joints of the hand, useful for diagnosis, and hip arthropathy. Iron deposits seem to be involved in articular cartilage destruction.

Acute sacroiliitis as a manifestation of calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate crystal deposition disease.

While radiographic lesions of the sacroiliac joint (SIJ) are common in patients with calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) crystal deposition disease, they are rarely accompanied by clinical symptoms. We report the case of a 69-year-old woman who presented with an acute sacoiliitis and a linear calcification in the right SIJ on CT scan. The patient recovered well after intra-articular steroid injections.

[A new type of iliac fracture caused by bone insufficiency].

Background: The iliac bone is an uncommon localization for bone insufficiency fractures. We report a new type.

Case Report: A 51-year-old woman with post-menopause osteoporosis was seen for a fracture of the ischio-pubic branch of the iliac bone.

[Sacro-iliac involvement in he course of Paget disease. Report of 6 cases].

Objectives: Determine the characteristic features of sacroiliac lesions observed in patients with Paget's disease.

Patients And Methods: A retrospective analysis of the hospital files of 87 patients cared for over a period of 12 years was performed. Six patients, 4 women and 2 men, mean age 79 years, were retained for study.

Cystic rheumatoid arthritis with Felty's syndrome and ankylosing spondylitis.

A 63-year-old man with strictly axial ankylosing spondylitis since the age of 28 years had a seven-year history of cystic seronegative rheumatoid arthritis with Felty's syndrome. Cysts were present in the hands, feet, wrists, shoulders, hips, one elbow, and one knee. There was no evidence of juxtaarticular demineralization, joint space loss, erosions, or joint destruction.

HLA B27 and respiratory involvement in axial spondylarthropathies. A retrospective study in 107 male patients.

Objective: To conduct a retrospective study of respiratory involvement in axial spondylarthropathies according to HLA B27 status.

Method: Schöber's index, chest expansion and lung function parameters were measured in 107 male inpatients with spondylarthropathies, including 78 with and 29 without the HLA B27 antigen (groups I and II, respectively). Active or severe spondylarthropathy was defined based on widely used clinical and laboratory test parameters.

Factors linked to disease activity in a French cohort of patients with spondyloarthropathy.

Objective: To identify risk factors associated with disease activity, in a group of patients with spondyloarthropathy (SpA) living in France.

Methods: Patients fulfilling the ESSG or Amor criteria for SpA were enrolled in a cross sectional multicenter study. Disease activity was assessed using a French version of the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI).

[Hereditary xanthinuria, rare cause of hypo-uric acidemia. 2 cases].

Background: Hypouricemia can be observed in uncommon situations as in our two patients with hereditary xanthinuria.

Case Reports: In the first case, hereditary xanthinuria was discovered in a 36-year-old man when routine tests revealed hypouricemia. In the second case, a 76-year-old woman, hypouricemia was also a fortuitous discovery.

Evaluation of a French version of the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index in patients with spondyloarthropathy.

Objective: To develop a French version of the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) and to determine its metric properties in patients with all forms of spondyloarthropathies (SpA).

Methods: A French version of BASDAI was obtained after a translation and back-translation process. Patients fulfilling the European Spondylarthropathy Study Group or Amor criteria for SpA were included.

Cauda equina syndrome with pagetic vertebral fusion. Clinical recovery under calcium-vitamin D supplementation plus clodronate after apparent failure of pamidronate and acquired resistance to etidronate.

A patient with an osteolytic L2-L3 pagetic block and pagetic lesions of L1 and the sacrum seen only as increased radionuclide activity became resistant to etidronate after the fifth course (5 mg/kg/d six months per year) and developed severe cauda equina syndrome (reduction in walking distance to 30 m and sphincter dysfunction) due primarily to vertebral hypertrophy. Five months after a ten-day course of intravenous pamidronate (22.5 mg/d), the clinical symptoms were unchanged, although the alkaline phosphatase level was down 50%.

[Static metatarsalgia].

Static metatarsalgia involves pain of non-inflammatory origin in the region of the metatarsal heads. It is caused by a functional disorder or anatomic derangement of the architecture over the ball of the foot, whether congenital or acquired, evident or not. Clinical examination, including of the shoe and of the plantar orthosis, distinguishes five types of anomalies: 1.

[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.