[Intra-digestive fermentation in intestinal malabsorption syndromes: relations with elevated serum activity of gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase].

Unlabelled: The aim of this prospective study was to examine the relationship between gastrointestinal ethanol production ("Mei-Tei-Sho" syndrome described in Japan) and biological liver dysfunction associated with intestinal malabsorption syndromes.

Methods: Sixty-five patients with malabsorption-diarrhea underwent 98 simultaneous measurements of plasma gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase and of faecal ethanol concentrations; in 5 cases, ethanolemia and faecal ethanol concentrations were measured after a 250 g rice-meal; in 1, ethanol concentration was measured in a sample of caecal liquid in hours following local instillation of fructose (40 g).

Results: Faecal ethanol was detected at least once in 60/65 patients (74/98 measurements, maximum 3.

Primary malignant tumors (lymphoma excluded) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. A series of 22 cases from a retrospective study of 248 patients.

This retrospective study was conducted to evaluate the incidence of primary malignant tumors in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Between 1974 and 1994, 313 patients were hospitalized for CLL. Patients lost to follow-up were excluded (n = 65).

[Measurement of energy expenditure at rest in nutritional disorders. Study in 229 patients].

Resting energy expenditure was measured by indirect calorimetry, and body composition was evaluated by electrical body impedance analysis in 229 female patients with anorexia nervosa, cancer, non tumoral disease, obesity, and 42 healthy women. Results were compared with theoretical formulas based on anthropometry, and expressed by kilogram of body weight and lean body mass. Each group was compared with each other and with controls.

[Prognostic value of nutritional parameters in gastrectomy for cancer: a study of 203 cases].

Two hundred and three patients underwent a gastrectomy for 1981 to 1985, as a treatment for gastric carcinoma. This retrospective study focuses on survival and the prognostic value of oncological features as topography, local involvement and size of the tumour, and nutritional features as albuminemia, prealbuminemia and weight loss. Although prealbuminemia and weight loss have a prognostic value, albuminemia has not this classical value.

[Gastropericardial fistula. Review of the literature apropos of an original case].

The authors present a case of pneumopericarditis consecutive to a perforating gastric ulcer complicating a left, post-traumatic diaphragmatic hernia, evolving favorably after radical surgery. 52 cases of gastro-pericardial fistulas were reported in the literature, 42 of which related to benign pathology. The overall mortality rate for this disease was 85%, although the course was favorable in one patient out of two, whenever radical surgery had been resorted to.

[Isolated cervical intramedullary metastasis from breast cancer. Value of magnetic resonance imaging].

A metastasis from a breast carcinoma developed in the cervical cord. The localisation and nature of the lesion were easily diagnosed by a contrast MRI study with Gadolinium DTPA.

Multiple myeloma in two brothers. An immunochemical and immunogenetic familial study.

When multiple myeloma was diagnosed within 6 months in two brothers a family study was carried out in 34 relatives to assess the genetic factors involved. The monoclonal immunoglobulin isotype identified was identical for the two brothers (IgG kappa) as well as their genotype (a = A2B12BfSDR4 GIo2/d:A9B27BfSDR2GIol). Blood protein electrophoresis and the major histocompatibility complex markers (HLA A, B, DR, Bf, glyoxalase phenotypes) were also determined in the other family members.