[Chronic osteomyelitis: a new therapeutical idea].

We studied the case of a male patient aged 43 affected by post-traumatic chronic osteomyelitis with frequent relapses. Having supposed an insufficiency of the arterial and venous microcirculation in perilesional bone and soft tissue we decided for a therapy with iloprost and antibacterial drugs. After 15 months of treatment the patient hasn't showed any clinically evident relapsing episodes and we have not reported any side effects related to the therapy.

Prevention with clodronate of osteoporosis secondary to inhaled corticosteroid treatment in patients with chronic asthmatic bronchitis.

Steroid therapy is the third most common cause of osteoporosis, after loss of gonad function and senescence. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the protective action of clodronate on bone mass loss induced by steroid therapy. Sixty patients with bronchial asthma receiving either fluticasone (250 mg x 4/day) or beclomethasone (250 mg x 4/day) inhaled corticosteroid treatment were enrolled.

Clinically silent inflammatory gut lesions in undifferentiated spondyloarthropathies.

Gastrointestinal inflammation or infection can be associated with various forms of arthritis, such as, acute reactive arthritis triggered by enteritis due to gram-negative bacteria or ankylosing spondylitis and peripheral arthritis in relation to Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Using colonoscopy, we have found a high prevalence of clinically silent inflammatory lesions in 38 patients (24 males and 14 females) affected by undifferentiated spondyloarthropathies (SpA). Microscopic inflammatory lesions were present in all the patients.