Medication and the patient-doctor relationship: a qualitative study with patients suffering from fibromyalgia.

Background: Fibromyalgia is characterized by a diffuse and predominantly axial and chronic pain, for which there is no explicit rationale for treatment options.

Objective: This qualitative study aims to understand the medication experience of patients with fibromyalgia and their relationship with the doctors derived from treatment negotiation.

Design: A qualitative approach was used, based on interviews with patients.

Echocardiographic evidence for valvular toxicity of benfluorex: a double-blind randomised trial in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Objectives: REGULATE trial was designed to compare the efficacy and safety of benfluorex versus pioglitazone in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) patients.

Methods: Double-blind, parallel-group, international, randomised, non-inferiority trial. More than half of the 196 participating centres were primary care centres.

IgG4-related systemic disease: features and treatment response in a French cohort: results of a multicenter registry.

IgG4-related systemic disease is now recognized as a systemic disease that may affect various organs. The diagnosis is usually made in patients who present with elevated IgG4 in serum and tissue infiltration of diseased organs by numerous IgG4+ plasma cells, in the absence of validated diagnosis criteria. We report the clinical, laboratory, and histologic characteristics of 25 patients from a French nationwide cohort.

Yield of bone marrow examination in diagnosing the source of fever of unknown origin.

Background: Fever of unknown origin (FUO) still remains a diagnostic challenge, while diagnosis may remain obscure for several weeks or months. The role of tissue biopsy is crucial in the diagnostic approach. We report a series of 130 consecutive patients with FUO who had undergone a bone marrow biopsy (BMB).

Dysferlin deficiency treated like refractory polymyositis.

When an adult suffers from muscular symptoms, the diagnosis of polymyositis is often accepted if muscular biopsy reveals necrosis, fibrosis and cellular infiltrate with high expression of major histocompatibility complex class I. Late-onset limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD) can also be considered. We report the case of a young woman who suffers from dysferlin deficiency, and who was mistakenly treated for refractory polymyositis for 5 years.

Recurrent cerebral venous thrombosis revealing paraneoplastic angiitis in Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Recurrent cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), as a manifestation of paraneoplastic angiitis and revealing of nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin's disease (NLPHD), is an extremely rare condition. We herein report a 55-year-old man who developed recurrent CVT despite efficacious anticoagulant therapy and subsequent stenting of the superior longitudinal sinus. Progressive neurological deterioration ensued and a body scan revealed axillary lymph nodes.

[Management of cancer-related fatigue].

Introduction: Cancer-related fatigue is very common but its management remains frustrating. We thus sought to review current knowledge in this field: epidemiologic data, pathophysiological mechanisms, assessment, and treatment.

Methods: We queried the Medline database for all articles on this topic published between 1997 and 2007 and analyzed the articles published in English and French, as well as some of the essential earlier work.

Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma: clinical and laboratory features at diagnosis in 77 patients.

We retrospectively analyzed 77 patients with pathologically diagnosed angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma from a single city. There were 43 men and 34 women; the median age was 64.5 years (range, 30-91 yr).

Clinical significance of anti-histidyl-tRNA synthetase (Jo1) autoantibodies.

The clinical significance of a discovery of anti-histidyl-tRNA synthetase (Jo1) autoantibodies patients was established in the early diagnosis of antisynthetase syndrome (ASS) as the common form of this pathology is characterized by interstitial lung disease (ILD), inflammatory muscle disease, and production of anti-Jo1 autoantibodies. However, the specificity of such autoantibodies has to be evaluated in daily clinical practice. In this study, the clinical and prognostic profiles of 45 patients displaying anti-Jo1 autoantibodies were determined.

Aseptic abscesses: a study of 30 patients with or without inflammatory bowel disease and review of the literature.

Aseptic abscesses (AA) are characterized by deep, sterile, round lesions consisting of neutrophil that do not respond to antibiotics but improve dramatically with corticosteroids. We report the clinical, laboratory, and radiologic characteristics and the associated conditions of 29 patients from the French Register on AA plus 1 patient from the Netherlands.The mean age of patients at AA diagnosis was 29 years (SD = 14).

Neurological manifestations and neuroradiological presentation of Erdheim-Chester disease: report of 6 cases and systematic review of the literature.

Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD) is a rare, non-Langerhans form of histiocytosis of unknown etiology that affects multiple organs. We report 6 cases of ECD with neurological involvement and neuroradiological abnormalities on brain MRI. A literature review revealed 60 other cases of ECD with neurological involvement.

Systemic mastocytosis: predictable factors of poor prognosis present at the onset of the disease.

Systemic mastocytosis (SM) refers to a group of heterogeneous diseases that can be divided into indolent SM, for which prognosis is favorable, and malignant SM, which has a poor prognosis. While the diagnosis of SM is often a challenge since clinical and biological abnormalities are not specific, prognosis is even more difficult to predict. Thus, we aimed to highlight predictable factors in a cohort of 28 cases of SM.

Lupus-like presentation of parvovirus B19 infection.

Objectives: To describe 2 cases of parvovirus B19 (B19) infection mimicking systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and to identify all cases of SLE imitated by and/or associated with B19 in the medical literature.

Methods: A computer-assisted (PubMed) search of the medical literature from 1975 to 2003 was performed using the following key words: parvovirus, B19, SLE, lupus, antibodies, auto-immunity.

Results: Thirty-eight patients were identified: 35 women, 3 men; mean age = 28.

Prevalence and pattern of antinuclear autoantibodies in 347 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The presence of antinuclear autoantibodies (ANA) was investigated in a large cohort of patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) in order to assess their frequency, specificity and prognostic relevance. ANA were analysed in 347 patients with different histological subgroups of NHL and in 213 controls using an indirect immunofluorescence technique on HEp2 cells. As the appearance of autoantibodies may be found after treatment of NHL, samples were collected at the time of diagnosis of NHL before any therapy.

[Acquired angioneurotic edema induced by hormonal contraception].

Objective: Although frequently pointed out in the aetiology of chronic angioedema or chronic abdominal pain, food allergy is frequently a diagnosis for lack of anything better, as exemplified by disappointing results of eviction regimens. This has resulted in the search for other aetiologies, such as an iatrogenic effect of oral contraceptives.

Methods: Detailed medical history was obtained on 38 young women, aged a mean of 26 years, experiencing chronic angioedema initially ascribed to food hypersensitivity, but in whom a deficit in C1 inhibitor was demonstrated.

Exogenous oestrogen as an alternative to food allergy in the aetiology of angioneurotic oedema.

Although frequently reported as an aetiology for chronic angioneurotic oedema or urticaria, food allergy is often a diagnosis proposed in the absence of more convincing evidence, as illustrated by the disappointing results of eviction regimens. We report a series of women with an initial diagnosis of food allergy, but in whom the role of oral contraceptives was subsequently demonstrated. Detailed medical history was obtained from 26 young women presenting with chronic angioneurotic oedema or urticaria initially attributed to food allergy, but in whom C1-esterase inhibitor (C1 INH) deficiency was demonstrated.

Neurologic presentation of Whipple disease: report of 12 cases and review of the literature.

We report 12 cases of Whipple disease in patients with prominent neurologic symptoms, along with 122 cases of Whipple disease with nervous system involvement reported in the literature. We analyzed the clinical signs and results of additional examinations in 2 groups: the first group included patients with predominantly but not exclusively neurologic signs, and the second included patients with clinically isolated neurologic presentation of the disease. Whipple disease is a multisystemic infectious disease due to Tropheryma whippelii that may present with prominent or isolated symptoms of either the central or the peripheral nervous system.

[Immunological diagnosis of scleroderma].

Systemic sclerosis is characterized by a fibrosis and a microvascular injury. These vascular lesions can affect internal organs causing severe visceral damages. The pathogenesis of this disease is complex but some immunological disorders with a production of antinuclear auto-antibodies can be useful to the clinicians, especially for an early diagnosis and to distinguish the scleroderma/myositis overlap syndromes.