Lichenoid cutaneous drug reaction at injection sites of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (Filgrastim).

Colony-stimulating factors are widely used for bone marrow recovery after chemotherapy. Various cutaneous side-effects have been described in most cases involving neutrophils. We report the first case of lichenoid reaction at injection sites of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) in a 40-year-old patient treated for breast cancer.

[Membranous lipodystrophy caused by chemotherapy].

Introduction: Membranous lipodystrophy represents a peculiar dermatopathologic type of cystic forming adipose tissue necrosis. In skin pathology two distinct entities are currently known: a primary idiopathic type and a secondary type found in association with various cutaneous or systemic diseases (lupus erythematosus, scleroderma, dermatomyositis, venous disorders, trauma, diabetes mellitus..

[Persistent erythema multiforme associated with chronic hepatitis C virus infection. Efficacy of interferon alpha].

Introduction: Persistant erythema multiforme is a rare form of erythema multiforme with subacute typical and atypical lesions that occur during several months. Some cases are associated with chronic viral infection.

Case Report: A 23 year-old man, with a past history of intravenous drug addiction and chronic hepatitis C virus infection, presented persistant erythema multiforme for 18 months.

[Venous angiography: importance in the diagnosis of brain death. 125 cases].

According to many ethical and humanitarian arguments, the diagnosis of "brain death" is more and more an emergency. The forensic criteria include abolition of consciousness, abolition of brain stem reflexes, abolition of spontaneous breathing joined to electrocerebral silence. However using EEG criteria of electrical silence may be unreliable because of technical artefacts or depressed electrical activity due to drug intoxication and hypothermia.

[Value of transcranial Doppler ultrasonography in patients with suspected brain death].

Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TCD) is a non invasive technique which assesses blood flow velocitics in basal cerebral arteries. Specific patterns have been observed in brain death. In a continuous series of 72 patients, the TCD recordings from the intracranial internal carotid and middle cerebral arteries were compared with the results from the usual investigations for brain death, such as electroencephalogramme (EEG), and arteriography.

[Value of transcranial Doppler in the monitoring of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage treated with calcium inhibitors].

Fifty four patients (33 male and 21 female, mean age 47) with spontaneous aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhages have been tested by repeated TCD: 25 of them were systematically administered intravenous Nimodipine when admitted at hospital, the 29 others constituted a reference group. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups of patients for age, sex, initial clinical status, importance of bleeding at CT scan, localization of aneurysm or existence of an angiospasm, whether clinically symptomatic or not. In 72% of the cases, TCD allowed to prove the existence of an angiospasm when higher flow velocity was registered in cranial basal arteries.