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J Ammar

Publications and source records attributed to J Ammar.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

[Abundant hemothorax revealing extralobular pulmonary sequestration].

Hemothorax is an exceptional, serious and misleading manifestation of extralobular sequestration. We report the case of a 15-year-old patient who consulted for chest pain and sudden onset dyspnea. The chest x-ray revealed fluid pleural effusion. Pleural puncture produced a bloody fluid and the angioscan showed a hyperdense formation without a systemic artery. Thoracotomy was performed. A left intrapleural pyramidal formation vascularized with a pedicle from the thoracic aorta was identified and sequestrectomy performed. At two years, the patient has remained symptom free. Extralobular sequestration is an exceptional cause of hemothorax. The absence of an aberrant systemic vessel on the angioscan should not rule out the diagnosis of sequestration. Precautions must be taken at surgery to avoid vessel damage.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

[Hydatid cyst: another unusual localization].

UNLABELLED: We report a case of a 39-year-old woman who presented a right basicervical tumefaction. The chest X rays show a right cervicomediastinal opacity. Ultrasonography and computed tomography failed to describe the nature of the opacity. Because of the strong suspicion of neoplasm or a tuberculosis abscess, a needle aspiration of the cervical mass was performed and surprisingly revealed the presence of a cyst membrane allowing surgical resection. CONCLUSION: Hydatid disease is a likely diagnosis in endemic areas in patients presenting a cystic mediastinal opacity of unknown orign.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

Elevation of serum soluble E-selectin and VCAM-1 in severe asthma.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the significance of circulating adhesion molecules associated with leucocyte-endothelial cell interactions in asthma, serum levels of soluble E (sE)-selectin, soluble P (sP)-selectin, soluble L (sL)-selectin, and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) were measured in mild, moderate and severe asthma. METHOD: Serum levels of sE-selectin, sP-selectin, sL-selectin, and sVCAM-1 were measured in 32 women with asthma and 30 healthy donors using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. Twenty patients were suffering from severe asthma, and 12 from mild/moderate asthma. RESULTS: Serum sE-selectin and sVCAM-1 levels from patients with asthma were significantly higher than those observed in healthy donors (p < 0.01). The levels of sP-selectin were the same as those of controls. The level of sE-selectin exhibited an important increase in the severe asthmatic patients compared with mild/moderate asthma (p < 0.01). The sVCAM-1 level was increased in severe asthma when compared with healthy controls. There was no correlation between the levels of soluble selectins and the age of the patients. A significant correlation was found between sE-selectin and sVCAM-1 levels. CONCLUSION: These data indicate that circulating soluble forms of the selectins may have different kinetics during the clinical course of asthma, suggesting that they may reflect different inflammatory pathways in severe asthma. Both sVCAM-1 and sE-selectin may be useful immunological markers for monitoring disease activity in asthma.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

[Treatment of dry eye by temporary punctum plug. Comparison with a control group].

35 patients with chronic dry eye were treated with punctum plug on one side only. The other side was a control: after simulation dilatation, the patient underwent a simulation insertion. This is an open study in which only the patient ignored the reality of treatment. The study was prospective. 28 females and 7 males were enrolled in this study. The age' average was 53. The follow-up average is 5.3 months. The etiologies were: idiopathic dry eye: 10 cases, Sjögren's syndrome: 11 cases, drug induced dry eye: 6 cases, filamentous keratitis: 4 cases. Other: 4 cases. Enrollment criteria were: functional symptomatology not answering to topical therapy (physiological serum drops) associated with one or more of the following items: positive Rose Bengal staining and/or Schirmer lower than 5 mm in 5 min and/or filamentary keratitis. Subjective improvement is significantly better after closing the two puncta on the same side (77%) than the other side (placebo) (17%) (p less than 0.001). This difference is also demonstrated for the improvement of Rose Bengal staining (p = 0.068) and for Schirmer's test (p = 0.002). These results demonstrated the effectiveness of this therapy versus placebo. Results after closing the 2 puncta on the same side are better than after closing one punctum.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

[Complications of punctum plug in the symptomatic treatment of dry eye].

76 patients with dry eyes were treated by mechanical obstruction of lacrymal puncta. The sex ratio is: 62 females and 14 males. The age average was 55, ranging from 12 to 88. The etiologies were: Sjögren's syndrome: 16 cases (21%); filamentous kerato-conjonctivitis sicca: 12 cases (15%); anxiolytical and anti-depressant treatments: 10 cases (13%); complicated viral kerato-conjonctivitis: 4 cases (5%); post radiotherapy dry syndrome: 3 cases (4%); idiopathic and various etiologies: 31 cases (40%). The 149 plugs are completely made of hydrophobic silicone; 20 had a barb inclined on the neck axis. Insertion was achieved after tropical anesthesia in 90% of the cases. 121 plugs (81%) did not lead to any anatomical complication (the average duration remaining on time interval of implantation per plug was of 5 months). Functional tolerance depends on the quality of plug-punctum adjustment. Plug protrusion is the main cause of intolerance and disappearance. The complications were: rupture of punctum during dilation: 1%; suppurative canaliculitis: 1.3%; disappearance: 16%; epiphora: 22%. No intra-canalicular migration was observed. We check canalicular permeability in 26 cases, after loss or removal: che was normal 23 times (average time-interval: 5 months). We had 3 cases of canalicular stenosis after 4 months, 5 months and 18 months of intubation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1988

[Recent wounds of the lacrimal duct. Apropos of 262 cases treated as emergencies].

From 1982 to 1987, surgery was performed in emergency in 262 patients on lacrimal ducts at the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Paris. The retrospective study of these cases and the comparison with the conclusion of the report of the French Society of Ophthalmology about the lacrimal apparatus (1980) can allow us a few conclusions. The first cause is assault in a 30 year old man, with a left lower canaliculus wound, and 20% of the cases an eye-penetrating wound. With the current use of safety belts, car-related injuries have become the second cause. Children are often bitten by family dogs. Upper lacrimal drainage wounds are associated in 40% of the cases with eye-penetrating wound, and must be repaired. Complications of intubation are: disappearance of silicone tubing 5%; loop retraction: 8%; slit canaliculus: 16% of the cases. This last complication becomes rarer with surgical experience. Concerning nasolacrimal intubation versus pig-tail probe, statistical results lead us to prefer the first technique.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

IL-18 mRNA expression and IFN-gamma induction in bronchoalveolar lavage from Behçet's disease.

OBJECTIVE: IL-18 expression and functional activity has been identified in several autoimmune and infectious diseases. To clarify the potential role of IL-18 during pulmonary Behçet's disease (BD), we have explored the capacity of IL-18 to induce the expression of IFN-gamma. METHODS: We studied bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) from 12 patients with BD, 10 patients with silicosis as the control disease and 10 BAL from healthy subjects. BAL fluid, and BAL fluid cell cultures were investigated for IL-18 estimation by ELISA. Analysis of IL-18 and IFN-gamma gene expression was carried out before and after LPS stimulation. RESULTS: BD patients had significantly elevated levels of IL-18 in BAL fluid compared with control disease and healthy subjects. Induction of IFN-gamma and IL-18 were observed from BD-BAL fluid cells both spontaneously and after LPS stimulation, at higher levels compared to silicosis patients and healthy subjects (HC). Spontaneously only BD BAL cells expressed IL-18 mRNA and IFN-gamma mRNA. Forty-eight hours after LPS stimulation IL-18 mRNA and IFN-gamma mRNA were observed in BD, silicosis and HC cells. Recombinant IL-18 induced IFN-gamma production in BD- BAL fluid cells. CONCLUSION: Administration of IL-18 induced greater IFN-gamma production in BD-BAL fluid cells, than in normal BAL fluid cells. Our data indicate that IL-18 up-regulation is a feature of BD and suggest that IL-18 and IFN-gamma may contribute to the local inflammatory response in BD.

Adult↗