[Clavicle osteolysis in MacDuffie's syndrome].

MacDuffie's syndrome emerges from systemic vasculitis as including recurrent urticaria-like skin lesions, episodic angio-oedemas, articular manifestations and abdominal pains, with a tendency to affect women. Renal involvement may burden the prognosis. Hypocomplementemia is usual by deficiency of the classical pathway.

Activation of the cAMP-generating system by vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) in the human laryngeal malignant cell line HEp-2.

In the presence of 3-isobutyl-l-methylxanthine, VIP produced a dose-related (3 X 10(-9)-10(-7) M) increase (8-fold) in cAMP production in isolated HEp-2 cells incubated at 15 degrees C in KRP buffer. Among the peptides structurally related to VIP, including secretin (10(-7) M), pancreatic glucagon (10(-6) M), PHI, somatostatin-14 (10(-6) M), hpGRF (10(-8)-4 X 10(-6) M), GIP (2 X 10(-7) M), only PHI (3 X 10(-7) M and above) is able to activate the cAMP-generating system in HEp-2 cells, but at 10(2) times lower potency. Under the same conditions, histamine (10(-3) M) was also ineffective, while PGE2 (10(-7)-10(-4) M) increased (4-fold) basal cAMP levels in HEp-2 cells.

Desensitization by histamine of H2 receptor-mediated adenylate cyclase activation in the human gastric cancer cell line HGT-1.

Short-term treatment of cultured HGT-1 cells with histamine produced a time-dependent (half-life: 20 min) and homologous desensitization of histamine H2 receptor activity mediating cAMP generation in HGT-1 cells and gastric acid secretion in normal gastric mucosa. Histamine treatment resulted in loss of response of the adenylate cyclase to histamine in purified plasma membranes, but had no effect on basal, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP)- or NaF-stimulated enzyme activities. We propose that the desensitization of gastric histamine H2 receptor by histamine evidenced in cellular or subcellular preparations from HGT-1 cells could be involved in the physiological regulation and pharmacological control of gastric cell function in man.

[Multiple hyperostosis with unilateral sacroiliitis. A new spondyloarthropathy].

Six patients (4 male and 2 female) presenting with an original, predominantly osseous disease are reported. The disease is characterized by a chronic inflammatory process affecting the thorax, the spine, the femur in 1 case and in all patients only one of the sacro-iliac joints. The condition had begun 11 to 28 years previously and had been active for 6 to 24 years.

Cost-effectiveness of blindness prevention by the Onchocerciasis Control Programme in Upper Volta.

The article presents a cost-effectiveness analysis of the Onchocerciasis Control Programme in Upper Volta. The analysis uses a new approach to the measurement of health project effectiveness, by considering the number of healthy years of life added by the prevention of permanent disability and premature death attributable to onchocercal blindness. The approach emphasizes the central role of social value judgements in allocating health resources-in particular the relative weights assigned to preventing disability and postponing death, present and future health benefits, and health gains among productive and non-productive individuals.

[Comparison of human tumor cells (Hep 2) and rat liver for the detection of antinuclear antibodies by indirect immunofluorescence].

Indirect immunofluorescent detection of anti-nuclear antibodies was conducted on sections of rat liver and on smears of human Hep 2 tumour cells in the serum of 1017 patients. Overall, the Hep 2 cells gave titres superior by 1 or 2 dilutions. Taking into account this difference, a good agreement was observed between the 2 cellular reagents in 83 per cent of the sera tested.

The economics of blindness prevention in Upper Volta under the Onchocerciasis Control Program.

This paper proposes a new approach to the economics of blindness prevention under the Onchocerciasis Control Program in Upper Volta. It differs from previous economic analyses of onchocerciasis control in three important respects. First, it uses empirical data as the basis of an estimate of the epidemiological effectiveness of the intervention.

Decreased microfilarial load and its effect on the calculation of prevalence and the rate of false negatives in the detection of onchocerciasis.

It has been shown in the epidemiological evaluation of onchocerciasis that the method of taking two or more snips per person contains information about the probabilities of false negatives which can be extracted and used to improve the prevalence estimates. Using the method of maximum likelihood, one can obtain expressions for estimating the prevalence, adjusted for the false negatives, and for estimating the proportion of false negatives. The variances of all estimates are also available, making confidence interval estimation possible.

Response to tetanus immunization in onchocerciasis patients.

Fifty-five people were examined for tetanus antitoxin level two months after immunization with a single 0.5 ml dose of concentrated tetanus toxoid vaccine; only 7.1% of patients infected with onchocerciasis became immunized, whereas 44.

Relationships between mortality, visual acuity and microfilarial load in the area of the Onchocerciasis Control Programme.

The relationships between onchocercal infection, visual acuity and mortality have been examined using epidemiological data gathered by the Onchocerciasis Control Programme from 66 villages in West Africa. All of these villages were surveyed at least twice. 18,778 persons were registered at the first surveys which were conducted around the time when control activities started.

Variations in the prevalence and intensity of microfilarial infections by age, sex, place and time in the area of the Onchocerciasis Control Programme.

Epidemiological data gathered by the Onchocerciasis Control Programme from 66 villages in West Africa have been analysed. All of these villages were surveyed twice and 10 a third time. The first surveys were conducted around the time when control activities started and provide baseline data against which to assess the effectiveness of control.

[Atloido-axoid erosive osteoarthritis. Apropos of 3 cases].

Three cases of unilateral atloido-axis arthropathy are described in women aged 39 to 69 years. The initial diagnosis of arthritis made in view of the severity of the clinical (severe pain and stiffness) and radiological (marked chondrolysis, subchondral erosions), manifestations was contested in the absence of any laboratory abnormality of an inflammatory nature, as well as any bacterial, inflammatory rheumatic or metabolic cause. The final diagnosis made at the time of hospitalisation after 8 to 9 month progression of the disease was osteoarthritis, no subject to any doubt on the basis of the subsequent course.

[Rigid-spine syndrome in a female patient (author's transl)].

A case of rigid spine syndrome in a woman is reported. There were a diffuse myopathic process, with atrophy and mild weakness not involving the face and a major rigidity of the spine. Contractures were present as well as a pure restrictive respiratory failure.

Histochemical enzyme variation in Onchocerca volvulus microfilariae from rain-forest and Sudan-savanna areas of the Onchocerciasis Control Programme in West Africa.

Histochemical staining methods for acid phosphatase were used to study the differences among microfilariae of various West African strains of Onchocerca volvulus in both forest and Sudan-savanna onchocerciasis zones. The results have shown statistically significant differences in the staining patterns of microfilarial populations in the two zones. In the rain-forest areas, where onchocerciasis is transmitted by Simulium yahense, S.

[Aseptic arthritis with positive serology for Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. Apropos of 6 new cases].

Six personal observations of aseptic acute arthritis with positive serology for yersinia pseudotuberculosis (YPT) have been related, the specific serodiagnosis was clearly positive (greater than 1/500) for all the patients and the rate variations of repeated examinations were constantly observed. These cases have been compared with 14 sporadic observations of the existing studies where such reactive arthritis were referred to a recent YPT infection, this confrontation leads us to specify the characteristics of this inflammatory rheumatism : starting by a prearthritic phase with variable combination of fever, diarrhea, abdominal pains, erythema nodosum, usually polyarticular affection (90%) mostly of the knees (89%), ankle-joints, wrists and elbows, marked inflammatory clinical and biological signs but without X. Rays abnormalities.

Associations in filarial infections in man in the savanna zones of Mali and Upper Volta.

In 14 villages located in the West African savanna belt, 1,305 people were examined for microfilariae in blood and skin. The results indicate that the associations between filariae in infected patients are not the result of chance alone. The frequency of associations between Wuchereria bancrofti and Tetrapetalonema perstans was highly significant, whereas Onchocerca volvulus appeared to be associated with W.

[Bone metastasis revealing a hepatoma. 13 cases].

The authors report a series of 13 cases of bony metastases leading to the discovery of a hepatoma. They were subjects of male sex, average age 64 years. Nine were severe alcoholics.

Rigid spine syndrome: histological examinations of male and female cases.

Histological findings in the limb-muscle of two new cases of Rigid Spine Syndrome are described. The first male case exhibited a disproportion in fiber type with predominance of the type II fibers with a slight increase of large fibers. Some of the type I fibers were slightly atrophic.

[Sterno-costo-clavicular hyperostosis (author's transl)].

The authors report two cases of sterno costo clavicular hyperostosis. Six cases have been described in previous reports by Köhler (five cases) and CAMUS (one case). This disease begins with sterno costo clavicular pain that develops with exacerbations over several years.

[Change in the plasma and urine levels of ionized fluorine under the influence of low doses of niflumic acid. Possible application to the treatment of osteoporosis].

Following several series of tests, it was shown that the administration of 500 mg/day of niflumic acid, at a dose of 250 mg morning and evening, causes in subjects with a weight between 65 and 75 kilos a moderate but permanent and relatively stable rise in the levels of plasma ionised fluorine. This constant concentration of ionised fluorine in the plasma contrasted with the marked and rapid variations which follow the ingestion of sodium fluoride, which is usually prescribed in the treatment of osteoporosis. This may explain why the fluoride ion is more active on osteogenesis when it is liberated in the organism from niflumic acid by way of metabolic processes.