[Respiratory manifestations of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. Retrospective study of 129 cases in Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine].

Objectives: The contradiction between airborne transmission of Puumala virus and the low rate of airway manifestations reported in hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) caused by this virus led us to conduct this study to check whether the incidence of respiratory manifestations may have been underestimated.

Patients And Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 129 consecutive cases of HFRS diagnosed between 1983 and 1995 in the eastern France.

Results: Clinical manifestations of airway involvement and chest X-ray abnormalities were observed in 30% and 50% of the patients respectively.

Relations between occupational exposure to coal mine dusts, erythrocyte catalase and Cu++/Zn++ superoxide dismutase activities, and the severity of coal workers' pneumoconiosis.

Objectives: To better understand the relations between occupational exposure, blood antioxidant enzyme activities, total plasma antioxidant concentration, and the severity of coal workers' pneumoconiosis (CWP).

Methods: Blood samples were obtained from miners without CWP exposed to low dust concentrations for > or = 4 years at the time of the study (n = 105), or exposed to high dust concentrations for > or = 14 years at the time of the study (n = 58), and from retired miners with CWP (n = 19). Miners without CWP were classified into three subgroups according to their estimated cumulative exposure to dust.

Can the evolution to pneumoconiosis be suspected in coal miners? A longitudinal study.

To assess whether the evolution to pneumoconiosis may be suspected in coal miners, we conducted a 4-yr longitudinal study of 80 dust-exposed miners with chest X-ray findings classified 0/1 or 1/0 according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) classification (exposed to coal mine dust, suspected of pneumoconiosis [ES group]) and two control groups having normal X-rays. The first of these latter two groups included 80 miners with similar exposure to that of the first group (exposure with normal X-rays [EN]), whereas the second group consisted of markedly less exposed miners (no exposure with normal X-rays [NN]). The protocol comprised a questionnaire on respiratory symptoms and smoking, assessment of cumulative coal-mine-dust exposure, X-rays, computed tomographic (CT) scans, and lung-function tests.

Superior vena cava stent placement: results with the Wallstent endoprosthesis.

Purpose: To assess the clinical success and short-term patency of the Wallstent endoprosthesis in the treatment of superior vena cava (SVC) syndrome.

Materials And Methods: Twenty-one 14-mm-diameter endoprostheses were implanted in 15 patients (mean age, 60 years) treated for SVC syndrome due to malignant compression (n = 14) or postirradiation fibrotic stenosis (n = 1) of the SVC.

Results: Immediate technical success was achieved in all patients.

[Imaging of cervical and thoracic chordoma. Apropos of 2 cases].

Chordoma is a rare tumor in spine. Two cases, exceptional in adolescents, are reported. The clinical evolution is slow and progressive.