Laparoscopic Splenectomy in Children: Safety of Ligasure Usage.

Introduction: Laparoscopic splenectomy started to be more popular and nowadays it is the first choice for splenectomy in children. The main advantages of laparoscopic splenectomy over open approach are the shorter hospital stay, low complications and the cosmetic results despite the main concern of long operative time and the intra operative bleeding.

Aim: The aim of this study was to report our experience with laparoscopic splenectomy in children's with hematological diseases using ligasure regarding vascular control safety, efficacy and complications rate.

End tidal carbon dioxide monitoring in acute asthma: a prospective pilot study in emergency department patients.

Unlabelled: The peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) is the gold standard for monitoring asthmatic patients. However, its measurement requires understanding and active participation. End tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO2) may be considered an accurate surrogate for PaCO2, a severity marker in acute asthma.

Is mid-regional pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (MRproANP) an accurate marker of bacteremia in pyelonephritis?

Introduction: Mid-regional pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (MRproANP) increases during systemic infections and could possibly correlate with bacteremia.

Methods: We determined the characteristics of MRproANP for accuracy to detect positive blood culture.

Results: Bacteremia was positive in 58 (15%) of 347 patients.

Development of sarcoidosis following completion of treatment for hepatitis C with pegylated interferon-{alpha}2a and ribavirin: a case report and literature review.

Sarcoidosis is a chronic inflammatory multisystem disease of unknown etiology. We report on a woman, aged 57 years, presenting with typical sarcoidosis occurring two months after completion of a six-month course of interferon-α and ribavirin for chronic hepatitis C virus infection. The current observation is interesting with regard to the time elapsed between the occurrence of symptoms and antiviral treatment withdrawal, and spontaneous recovery after ten months of follow-up.

Serum IgA rheumatoid factor and pyridinoline in very early arthritis as predictors of erosion(s) at two years: a simple model of prediction from a conservatively treated community-based inception cohort.

Objective: To identify, in conservatively treated, very early arthritis patients, predictors of ≥1 erosion(s) at 2 years, and to construct a prediction model.

Methods: Community-based adults (n=310) who had never taken disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) or steroids with swelling of ≥2 joints persisting for >4 weeks and lasting <6 months were recruited. Erosion status was assessed at 0, 6, 12, and 24 months; evaluations were comprised of clinical criteria (Disease Activity Score, Health Assessment Questionnaire), C-reactive protein level, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, autoantibodies, bone and cartilage markers, hand densitometry, and HLA class II shared epitopes.

Anxiety and depression are unrecognised in emergency patients admitted to the observation care unit.

Objective: To assess the sensitivity and specificity of emergency physicians in detecting anxiety and depression in patients requiring admission to the emergency department (ED) observation care unit for complementary investigations/treatment.

Methods: 339 consecutive patients admitted to the emergency observation care unit of 14 EDs were interviewed with standardised questionnaires. The characteristics of the patients, EDs and attending ED physicians were collected.

Fast racemisation of chiral amines and alcohols by using cationic half-sandwich ruthena- and iridacycle catalysts.

The lipase-catalysed resolution of alcohols and amines yields only 50 % of the desired enantiopure product. However, addition of a racemisation catalyst leads to 100 % yield in what is called a dynamic kinetic resolution (DKR). There is a need for new racemisation catalysts that are fast and compatible with the conditions of the enzymatic reaction.

Is it possible to identify early predictors of the future cost of chronic arthritis? The VErA project.

This study was conducted to identify early predictors of the total cost of inflammatory arthritis (IA). One hundred and eighty patients affected by undifferentiated arthritis (UA) or rheumatoid arthritis (RA) were included in the French Very Early rheumatoid Arthritis (VErA) cohort between 1998 and 2001. Health economic data for 2003 were collected using a patient self-questionnaire.

Dynamic kinetic resolution of racemic beta-haloalcohols: direct access to enantioenriched epoxides.

The direct chemo-enzymatic DKR of racemic beta-haloalcohols is reported, yielding the corresponding optically active epoxides in a single step. The mutant haloalcohol dehalogenase HheC Cys153Ser Trp249Phe is used for the asymmetric ring closure, whereas racemization of the remaining enantiomer of the haloalcohol is achieved using the new iridacycle 3, one of the most effective racemization catalysts to date for beta-haloalcohols.

Diagnostic and prognostic values of anti glucose-6-phosphate isomerase antibodies in community-recruited patients with very early arthritis.

The objective of this study was to determine the diagnostic and prognostic values of antiglucose-6-phosphate isomerase (GPI) antibodies in patients with very early arthritis. Anti-GPI antibodies were measured by ELISA using purified GPI from rabbit muscle in: (i) 383 sera from healthy blood donors (n = 120), well-established rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (n = 99) and non-RA differentiated arthritis (NRADA) (n = 164) patients; (ii) 195 sera obtained from community-recruited patients with very early inflammatory arthritis (VErA cohort) that were studied for 1 year and classified as having RA (n = 116), NRADA (n = 41), and undifferentiated arthritis (UA) (n = 38) after the follow-up period. The criterion for severity was the progression of radiographic damage.

Development of new camphor based N,S chiral ligands and their application in transfer hydrogenation.

A new class of N,S-containing chiral compounds based on the camphor scaffold have been synthesised and evaluated as chiral catalysts in the transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone. The best results were achieved using compound 6a as the ligand and [Ir(COD)Cl](2) as the metal precursor.

Autoantibodies recognizing citrullinated rat filaggrin in an ELISA using citrullinated and non-citrullinated recombinant proteins as antigens are highly diagnostic for rheumatoid arthritis.

The objective of the study was to determine the diagnostic value for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) of anti-filaggrin autoantibodies (autoAb) recognizing citrullinated recombinant rat filaggrin (ACRF) in community cases of very early arthritis. To evaluate the diagnostic value of ACRF, were studied sera from patients with different classified rheumatic diseases and healthy subjects (group 1, n= 422) and 314 community cases of very early arthritis (group 2) that were classified as RA (n = 176), non-RA (n = 63) and undifferentiated (n = 75) arthritides after 1 years of follow-up. ACRF were measured using a new ELISA, with results expressed as the difference between the OD value obtained on citrullinated minus that on noncitrullinated rat filaggrin (differential ACRF; dACRF).

Does hormone replacement therapy increase the frequency of breast atypical hyperplasia in postmenopausal women? Results from the Bouches du Rhone district screening campaign.

It is thought that the risk of atypical hyperplasia (AH) increases with age, particularly among postmenopausal women. Three hypotheses were investigated to try to explain this phenomena: use of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), increased breast cancer screening and improvements in radiological quality. Data were collected from the Bouches du Rhône breast cancer screening programme database and from the pathological registry of all women operated on for breast diseases in the district.

Rheumatoid factor is the strongest predictor of radiological progression of rheumatoid arthritis in a three-year prospective study in community-recruited patients.

Objective: To evaluate the predictive value of clinical, biological and radiological parameters for the prognosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a community-recruited cohort.

Methods: Ninety-one patients (mean age 49 yr, female/male ratio 2.9) with RA of limited duration (median 2 yr), 80% recruited from the community, were prospectively enrolled in 1996 (T1) and followed until 1999 (T2).

Novel catalytic kinetic resolution of racemic epoxides to allylic alcohols.

[formula: see text] The kinetic resolution of racemic epoxides via catalytic enantioselective rearrangement to allylic alcohols was investigated. Using the Li-salt of (1S,3R,4R)-3-(pyrrolidinyl)methyl-2-azabicyclo [2.2.

[The relationship between Chlamydia pneumoniae and atherosclerosis].

Background: Risk factors for arthrosclerosis have been well identified. More than ten years ago, an infectious process was incriminated, particularly the pathogenic effect of Chlamydia pneumoniae in the development of atheromatous lesions responsible for ischemic cardiovascular diseases.

Data Bases: Several approaches have been used to assess the presence of a relationship between C.

Autoantibodies to the 27 C-terminal amino acids of calpastatin are detected in a restricted set of connective tissue diseases and may be useful for diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis in community cases of very early arthritis.

Background: Calpastatin is the natural inhibitor of calpains, a protease that is overexpressed in rheumatoid synovial tissue and plays a key role in cartilage destruction. Autoantibodies to calpastatin (ACAST) were recently detected in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Our aim was to determine their prevalence and their clinical significance.

Evolution of chronic recurrent multifocal osteitis toward spondylarthropathy over the long term.

Objective: To retrospectively assess, with a sufficiently long followup (mean 11.6 years; median 9 years), the long-term outcome of chronic recurrent multifocal osteitis (CRMO), a multifocal, inflammatory bone disease.

Methods: Patients included were 8 children/adolescents and 7 adults with no family history of rheumatic disease who had been diagnosed as having CRMO between 1979 and 1995.

[Pulmonary bilharziasis due to Schistosoma mansoni simulating Carrington's disease].

A case of pulmonary Schistosoma mansoni bilharziasis observed in a female patient from Martinique is reported. In view of the unusual clinical and radiological features of the disease and of its rapidly worrying course, an open chest lung biopsy was performed which provided the diagnosis. A search for eggs in the stools was negative, and serological tests were weakly positive, treatment with Praziquantel resulted in rapid and complete cure.

[L4 crural neuralgia and disc hernia of the L4-L5 intervertebral foramen].

Discal L4 crural neuralgia is conventionally considered secondary to a hernia of the L3-L4 disc. Now, another source of discoradicular conflict exists on the path of the L4 root: hernia of the link canal of the L4-L5 canal through which the root leaves the rachidian canal. Of 27 discal neuralgias operated upon, 9 were linked to a hernia of the L3-L4 disc, while 18 were secondary to a hernia of the L4-L5 foramen, that is 2 foramina hernias for 1 "intrarachidian" hernia.

[Lumbar disk hernia through the intervertebral foramen. Apropos of 37 surgically treated hernia].

37 lumbar discal herniations situated in the intervertebral foramen were operated on, out of a total of 525 operations for lumbar discal herniations during the same period, that is to say 7%. Perhaps the habitual negativity of the contrast neuroradiologic investigations (saccoradiculography, discography, phlebography) explains its relative rareness. In the futur, the scanner, always positif in our cases, will perhaps enable us to appreciate its exact frequency.