Masson's vegetant intravascular hemangioendothelioma in an external jugular vein aneurysm with recurrent thrombosis.

A 50-year-old male patient was admitted for a symptomatic aneurysm of the external jugular vein. Thrombosis of the aneurysm was treated by oral anticoagulant but recurrence of neck swelling and thrombosis occurred 1 year after oral anticoagulant was discontinued. No other vascular anomalies were detected, and blood tests were normal.

Foot gangrene in patients with end-stage renal disease: a case control study.

The prevalence of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is high, with an annual risk of amputation estimated at 13%, and indications for limb revascularization in patients combining ESRD with stage IV PAD (foot gangrene) are still controversial. This case-controlled study compared survival, limb salvage, and quality of life in a group of patients hospitalized for foot gangrene according to their renal status (ESRD versus no renal insufficiency). All patients with ESRD hospitalized for foot gangrene (n = 16) from 1996 to 2002 were compared with a control group with normal creatininemia (n = 24) hospitalized for foot gangrene due to peripheral atherosclerotic arterial disease.

Urinary endothelin-1 as a marker of renal damage in sickle cell disease.

Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects the kidney by acute mechanisms as well as by insidious renal medullary/papillary necrosis, resulting in tubular defects, which increase the risk of dehydration and subsequent sickle crisis. Hypoxia has been reported to stimulate endothelin-1 (ET-1) synthesis by endothelial cells and also in the renal tubule.

Methods: This case-control study measured ET-1 in urine as a marker of its renal synthesis in asymptomatic SCD patients.

Gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography as first-line preoperative imaging in high-risk patients with lower limb ischemia.

Purpose: To assess the clinical relevance of gadolinium-enhanced MR angiography (Gd-MRA) as the first-line angiographic examination for planning lower limb revascularization in patients at high risk of complications after contrast arteriography (CA).

Method: Forty-five consecutive patients at high risk of post-CA complications because of chronic renal insufficiency, diabetes mellitus, advanced age, or the need for brachial artery catheterization or graft puncture had Gd-MRA as first-line angiography before a surgical or endovascular procedure for lower limb ischemia.

Results: After Gd-MRA, 59 procedures were performed, including 38 surgical reconstructions, 17 endovascular procedures, and four amputations.

Why and how post-mastectomy edema should be quantified in patients with breast cancer.

In the present study, we advocate quantifying post-mastectomy edema in patients with breast cancer in millilitres and not in centimetre, contrarily to the usual routine practice. The water displacement and perimetric quantification methods exhibited both excellent reproducibility with an intraclass correlation coefficient > 0.99 and an accuracy coefficient < 0.

Cutaneous microvascular blood flow and reactivity in patients with homozygous sickle cell anaemia.

Homozygous sickle cell anaemia (SS disease) involves a high prevalence of skin ulcerations, and background experience concerning the cutaneous microcirculatory flux and reactivity in this disease is very limited. We investigated, by laser-Doppler velocimetry, the microcirculatory cutaneous blood flow and vasoreactivity in 17 patients with SS disease but no cutaneous trophic changes, vs. the corresponding values in 18 normal matched controls.