[Increase of serum procalcitonin levels during a neuroleptic malignant syndrome].

When fever occurs in a patient treated with a neuroleptic, the diagnosis of a neuroleptic malignant syndrome is difficult to differentiate to that of an infectious event. Among inflammation biomarkers of inflammation, serum procalcitonin levels increase both quickly and specifically during a bacterial infection. We report the first case of a neuroleptic malignant syndrome associated with a significant increase of serum procalcitonin levels, without concomitant septic syndrome.

[Elder abuse and emergency care units].

Elder abuse could present with various aspects: physical, psychological, sexual aggression, embezzlement, neglect or self-neglect. According to epidemiological studies, between two and ten percent of the elderly population are concerned, but only few cases are reported, but this rate will likely increase with the growing elderly population. This paper highlights the risk factors for elder abuse.

Specific genetic disorders and autism: clinical contribution towards their identification.

Autism is a heterogeneous disorder that can reveal a specific genetic disease. This paper describes several genetic diseases consistently associated with autism (fragile X, tuberous sclerosis, Angelman syndrome, duplication of 15q11-q13, Down syndrome, San Filippo syndrome, MECP2 related disorders, phenylketonuria, Smith-Magenis syndrome, 22q13 deletion, adenylosuccinate lyase deficiency, Cohen syndrome, and Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome) and proposes a consensual and economic diagnostic strategy to help practitioners to identify them. A rigorous initial clinical screening is presented to avoid unnecessary laboratory and imaging studies.

[Hysteria and aging].

In the elderly, the manifestations of hysteria can take uncommon aspects such as durable conversion disorders for which a diagnosis is difficult in the context of polypathology, dissociative symptoms looking like some dementia syndromes, noisy psychiatric symptomatology with, in particular, severe depressive episodes or hallucinations. These disorders can appear without a context of histrionic personality. The evolution of hysterical disorders during life is not well known.

[Diogenes syndrome: a transnosographic approach].

Diogenes syndrome is a behavioural disorder of the elderly. Symptoms include living in extreme squalor, a neglected physical state and unhygienic conditions. This is accompanied by a self-imposed isolation, the refusal of external help and a tendency to accumulate heteroclite objects.

[Microdeletion 22q11: apropos of case of schizophrenia in an adolescent].

Deletion of chromosome 22q11 concerns nearly 1/5.000 births, and is the most frequent interstitial microdeletion. The deletion generates various phenotypes which were initially regarded as distinct syndromes.