Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J L Leroux.
The authors report one case of pubic post-fracture osteolysis, an uncommon and as yet not well understood pathology. It corresponds to an unusual healing of an insufficiency fracture in osteoporotic patients. Its pathogenesis is unclear, but the biomechanical theory seems to be the most convincing.
Anteroposterior views of the lumbar spine are commonly used for the measurement of bone mineral density (BMD) by diphoton absorptiometry (DPA). Values in lumbar vertebral BMD can be increased by the existence of a compression fracture, osteoarthrosis, scoliosis or aortic calcifications. Evaluation of bone loss at a peripheral site, such as the calcaneum (essentially trabecular site), could compensate for the principal causes of error associated with vertebral measurement. Calcaneal BMD in 195 control women was used to establish reference values closely correlated with lumbar BMD (p less than 0.001). The same study was undertaken in osteoporotic women. Preliminary results based upon 38 cases are reported here. Measurement of BMD of the calcaneum was correlated with vertebral trabecular bone density measured by double energy CT scan, indicating that this peripheral site offers a good reflection of what is happening at vertebral trabecular level. In contrast, calcaneal BMD was not correlated with spinal BMD, except if patients with osteoarthrosis and/or scoliosis were eliminated. Measurement of the BMD of the calcaneum by DPA is thus a simple, rapid and reproducible method for evaluation of a trabecular bone site which could be complementary to the measurement of lumbar BMD when the latter is falsified by artefacts.
An attempt was made to test the hypothesis that immunological dysfunction occurs in primary polyenthesopathy (PP) by studying skin immunofluorescence, capillary microscopy, photoplethysmography and the lymphocyte populations in PP patients defined according to the usual criteria of Yunus. Skin immunofluorescence in 15 PP patients (14 women, 1 man, average age 50.9 years) failed to reveal any deposit of IgG, A, M, Clq, or C3c either at the dermoepidermal junction or in the vessels. 26 patients (24 women, 2 men, average age 50.5 years) were studied using capillary microscopy and 12 using digital photoplethysmography. The microvascularization abnormalities observed were mild and non specific. A study of the lymphocyte populations using Coulter flux cytometry in 35 PP patients (32 women, 3 men, average age 46 years) did not show any modification in the number of CD4 and CD8 lymphocytes by comparison with the controls. These results do not agree with the data given in the literature and this is probably due to the heterogeneity of the patients studied, with some studies showing a low concentration of antinuclear factors and an abnormal frequency of dry symptoms which, in the opinion of the authors, is considered as an exclusion criterion in the diagnosis of PP. In the author's view, polyenthesopathy is not an immune disease.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The case of an 81-year-old woman with persistent post-traumatic pain of the knee linked to tophaceous gout of the patella is presented. This gout was associated with adenomatous primary hyperparathyroidism. The relationship between hyperuricemia, hyperparathyroidism and chronic renal failure is discussed.
Cauda equina metastases have been exceptionally described in sinusal neoplasms. MRI with gadolinium injection show up the primitive lesion and its neurologic extension. We report a case of cauda equina syndrome in which, only MRI, had show up intradural metastases and localised the ethmoïd sinus carcinoma.