Esophageal abnormalities and dysphagia in polymyositis and dermatomyositis.

Structural or functional abnormalities of the distal esophagus were demonstrated by cineradiography in 14 of 16 patients with polymyositis or dermatomyositis who had been incompletely responsive to high dose corticosteroids and, in some cases, immunosuppressive therapy, or who had adverse effects associated with these therapies. These distal abnormalities occurred in the absence of proximal esophageal skeletal muscle dysfunction in 70% of patients, usually were more frequent with increasing disease duration, and were functionally similar to abnormalities reported in scleroderma. Symptomatic improvement occurred to some patients with administration of antacids and measures designed to decrease esophageal reflux, but improved esophageal symptoms did not correlate with improvement in the myositis.

Treatment of Behcet's syndrome with levamisole.

The clinical response to levamisole in 11 patients with complete Behcet's syndrome was reviewed. Nine patients responded, 3 completely and 6 partially, with reduction in the number and severity of buccal and genital lesions. In 3 patients each, ocular inflammation and gastrointestinal involvement responded to levamisole, and in 1 patient neurologic status improved.

Double-blind placebo controlled crossover evaluation of levamisole in rheumatoid arthritis.

During levamisole therapy, 14 of 20 patients with previously unresponsive rheumatoid arthritis had significant improvement (P less than 0.05) in clinical measures of disease activity, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and rheumatoid factor titer in a 32-week double-blind placebo controlled crossover trial. Levamisole was shown to alter antibody responses to tetanus and typhoid antigens, lymphocyte blastogenesis to phytohemagglutinins, and the number of null cells in peripheral blood.