Hepatitis B antigen-associated periarteritis nodosa in patients undergoing long-term hemodialysis.

Periarteritis nodosa was observed in three of 266 persistent hepatitis B antigen (HBsAg) carriers undergoing long-term hemodialysis; no cases of necrotizing vasculitis occurred among 384 other patients undergoing dialysis having either no or transient antigenemia. Circulating e antigen, but no e antibody, was found in two of these three patients. The serum level of the third component of complement (C3) was normal in two patients and low in the third.

[Bilateral malignant exophthalmia as a manifestation of IgM multiple myeloma].

The authors report a case of IgM myeloma revealed by bilateral malignant exophtalmia, only the third case to be published in the world. This exophthalmia was due to plasma cell infiltration of the periorbital fat, and not to primary involvement of the orbit. Other rare localisations were found on autopsy: ovarian, pleuro-pulmonary and, above all, epicardiac.