[What is your diagnosis? Styloid syndrome. Discrete right convex abnormality of the apex at C6. No inflammatory changes].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to W Brückle.
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Generalised tendomyopathy (fibromyalgia) is characterised by diffuse localized pain involving the locomotory system, tenderness in the regions of the tendon insertions and muscles, loss of muscular power, sleep disorders and other vegetative functional and psychological disorders. In many cases, the diagnosis is delayed, often being made only after comprehensive superfluous diagnostic procedures, sometimes invasive, and inappropriate treatment. Age at disease onset is about 35 years, and initially involves, usually localized, the cervical or lumbar region of the spine. The condition is usually progressive over years. Pathogenesis is multifactorial; for generalization and persistence of the disease, psychosocial factors and civilization-related phenomena appear to play a decisive role. Treatment of generalized tendomyopathy is, for the most part, symptomatic and, overall, unsatisfactory. By way of medical treatment, only antidepressants seem to have a certain positive effect in some of the patients. Of importance is a good doctor--patient relationship and successful motivation of the patient to undergo active physiotherapeutic--in some cases also psychotherapeutic--treatment. With an eye to instituting more successful therapeutic measures and avoiding unnecessary diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, and, last but not least, for socioeconomic reasons, early diagnosis is of great importance.
Still's disease was diagnosed in a 40-year-old patient as a cause of psycho-organic syndrome with complete disorientation and stupor, sensory and motor aphasia. There were no signs of a tumour, cerebrovascular accident, bacterial or viral infection. The patient recovered quickly from the cerebral disturbances under treatment with corticosteroids. Similar symptoms in adult patients with Still's disease are seldom found in the literature.
The generalized tendomyopathy (fibromyalgia) is characterized by the characteristic picture of multilocular pain symptoms, severe pressure-type pain in the tendon insertions and muscles, vitality deficiency, sleep disturbance and other vegetative disorders as well as functional complaints and is often also characterized by an altered psychological condition. Nevertheless, the disease is often not recognized, resulting in extensive superfluous diagnostic procedures and sometimes invasive and useless therapeutic measures. The disorder develops on average in the 37th year of life and initially affects, mostly monolocular, the cervical and lumbar region. The further course of the disease is progressive or recurrent and extends over years, often over decades. The patients' quality of life is markedly impaired and in many cases they are no longer able to carry out their occupational and household work. The socioeconomic significance of the generalized tendomyopathy probably exceeds that of chronic polyarthritis. One problem is the still poor therapeutic possibilities and also the assessment of the treatment. It is, therefore, of great importance to follow the course of the disease and the pain course via hand measurement methods, so as to enable the evaluation of new, but also known therapies. Measuring instruments, which record the intensity and the topography of the pain, such as dolorimetry and the pain score, will be presented and discussed. One of the newest possibilities is the computerized recording of the current symptoms, which is made by the patient himself by means of an electronic pain diary.
The term nonarticular rheumatism covers a hetereogeneous group of diseases affecting the fatty tissue, periarticular tissue and muscles that often also appears, combined, in the form of peri-arthropathies. Without a doubt, the greatest importance attaches to the tendomyoses, which are characterized by spontaneous pain, in particular tenderness to touch, that appears at classical localisations. The most common causes are misalignment, microtrauma, overstraining, and occasionally internistic diseases. In many cases, the genesis is multifactorial, psychological factors also being involved. With respect to therapy, once noxae have been excluded, a range of predominantly physical and drug treatments are available, depending upon the acute nature of the disorder.
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A 32-year-old patient is described presenting with ulcerative colitis and oligoarthritis who later developed benign hypergammaglobulinemic purpura. This diagnosis was confirmed by clinical investigation, immunological findings as well as by histological and immunofluorescent examination. He was successfully treated with steroids and azathioprin. The relevant literature is reviewed.
A 52 year old patient was admitted to the hospital for further clarification of a cystic structure in the region of the spleen hilus noticed in the upper abdominal sonogram. The investigations revealed a spontaneous splenorenal shunt in hepatic cirrhosis.
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Measurements with polarographic needle probes in fibromyalgic muscles (mm. erectores spinae) revealed an elevated mean tissue-pO2. The total mean tissue-pO2 in the patient group was significantly higher than that in the control group. Greater pathological tension in fibromyalgic muscles increases the mean tissue-pO2. The distribution of local tissue-pO2 values was normal; there was no evidence of small hypoxic areas in the muscle. The elevated tissue-pO2 in fibromyalgic muscles could either be explained by an increase in local blood flow or by disturbance of oxygen-utilization of the muscle cells. The mean tissue-pO2 in patients treated with NSAD was lower than in patients without this treatment. Myogelosises (i.e., circumscript tautness in muscles, that, contrary to fibromyalgic muscles, do not relax under general anesthesia) showed low tissue-pO2 values and even hypoxia in the core. In myogelosises, pain could be hypoxic in nature. However, in fibromyalgic muscles no evidence for hypoxia or hypoxia-related pain could be found.
Prompted by one of our own case studies, which we report here, we reviewed the literature for coincidence of rheumatoid arteritis (RA) with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) and temporal arteritis (TA), respectively. The indicative feature of this uncommon condition was found in 13 cases, whereas in 70 other cases reported, the diagnosis of combined RA and PMR/TA was probable. Diagnostic criteria for determining combined RA and PMR/TA will be discussed, as well as the clinical important feature of senile RA.
The coincidence of arthritis with polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) or temporal arteritis (TA) is not well established. After reviewing the literature we found that 22% of patients suffering from PMR/TA present with additional signs of inflammatory joint involvement. Joints predominantly affected are the sternal junctions, knee and shoulder joints, and the wrists, involvement of the latter frequently resulting in carpal tunnel syndrome. With the exception of sternal junctions, bony erosions are rarely seen. In most cases, synovitis is mild, pauciarticular, asymmetrical, transient and not destructive. Little evidence for inflammatory involvement of spine or sacroiliac joints was found, thus, back pain in these patients should be considered as caused by osteoporosis of the spinal column, mostly due to prolonged corticosteroid treatment.