[A unique case of destructive polyarthritis associated with multicentric Castleman's disease]. / Un cas particulier de polyarthrite destructrice associée à une maladie de Castleman multicentrique.

This is an original report of a 75-year-old woman suffering from multicentric Castleman's disease associated with a destructive polyarthritis, which do not correspond to any known rhumatologic disease. Cattleman's disease (angiofollicular lymph node hyperplasia) is a lymphoproliferative disorder of unknown etiology. Two forms are described: a localized and a multicentric. In the literature, associations of Cattleman's disease and connective tissue disease such as rheumatoid arthritis have been described. Association with POEMS syndrome (polyneuropathy, organomegaly, endocrinopathy, M component, skin changes) and amylosis have also been described.

[A case of artero-ureteral fistula. Review of the literature]. / Un cas de fistule artério-urétérale. Revue de la littérature.

We report a case of a 78-year old male patient with a history of hematuria. Diagnosis of a shunt between a left common iliac artery aneurysm and the ipsilateral ureter was arrived at on the basis of arteriographic findings. Surgery consisted in ligating the left ureter proximal and distal to its communication with the aneurysm (left kidney silent on intravenous urogram), in closing the arterial orifices proximal and distal to the aneurysm, and in constructing an extraanatomical interfemoral bypass. At sixteen months' hindsight, the patient is doing well. Literature is reviewed (24 entries).

[Efficacy and tolerability of cycletanine in aged patients with hypertension]. / Efficacité et tolérance du ciclétanine chez le sujet âgé hypertendu.

Moderate arterial hypertension of the elderly has to be treated but the efficacy has to be progressive. Cicletanine has a pharmacokinetic profile well fitted to the therapy of this age group. The mechanism of action is characterized by synthesis of prostacyclin. A double blind prospective randomized study was conducted at two institutions on 132 patients aged more than 60, with diastolic arterial pressure over 95 mmHg and systolic over 160 mmHg. 62.9% of them were aged more than 75. The analysis of those two studies shows that the three groups with cicletanine (respectively 50, 100 and 150 mg per day) had a significant decrease of both pressures versus placebo. In the 50 mg group, 40% of arterial pressures were normalized after 3 months of treatment. There were no difference between 50 and 100 mg. There were no adverse drug reaction like falling down, day or night, or orthostatic hypotension. The biological tolerance, more particularly renal, was excellent with this dose of 50 mg a day. Cicletanine at the dose of 50 mg/day is a recommended treatment in arterial hypertension of the elderly.

[Arterial hypertension and unilateral small kidney]. / Hypertension artérielle et petit rein unilatéral.

Within a 10 years period, 612 patients underwent an autopsy, in a geriatric hospital. Seventeen p. 100 were discovered to have a high blood pressure. Twenty-nine patients (that is about 4 p. 100) presented with a small unilateral kidney. The pathogenetic factors of these unilateral nephropathies were various, many causes of which were unilateral pielonephritis. Out of the patients exhibiting a small unilateral kidney, 62 p. 100 had a high blood pressure. Hypertension due to a unilateral nephropathy, when studied on a statistic level, does not induce any atheromatous lesion nor heart ponderal hypertrophy more acute than essential high blood pressure. The unilateral nephropathies hypertension would thus be compared to an hypertension "depending on sodium or volume" and not as an hypertension "depending on renin".

[Ulcerative and mutilating acropathy (author's transl)]. / Acropathie ulcéro-mutilante.

The authors report the case of a 50-year-old patient with bilateral plantar chronic trophic ulcers. He was a chronic alcoholic and presented serious nutritional deficiencies. The etiological problems raised by sensitive neuropathies are reconsidered. After discussion, the authors relate their observation of ulcerative and mutilating acropathy to a sporadic Thevenard syndrome.

[Comparative study of light and electron microscopic aspects of myocardial lesions induced in the rat by oils with several amounts of gamma-linolenic acid (author's transl)]. / Etude comparative au microscope optique et électronique des lésions myocardiques induites chez le rat après administration d'huiles a différentes teneurs en acide gamma-linolénique.

Four different oils : onager oil, mixture of onager oil (20 p. cent) and middle class triglyceride, sunflower oil and soybean oil were given to the rat during three different periods of time : 1) during 3 months after weaning ; 2) during 6 months after weaning ; 3) from the 9th to 15th months. Three types of myocardial lesions were found : interstitial inflammatory reaction, foci of cellular necrosis and fibrosis. The semi-quantitative study of these lesions did not find important differences from one oil to the other, as well as with the controls. However, subgroups onager are among the least altered, particularly as far as necrotic lesions are concerned. Morphometry of mitochondria, despite evident alterations under electron microscope, gave similar results in every groups.

[Senile cardiac amyloidosis: study of possible relationship between amyloid and atheromatous processes in 923 cases (author's transl)]. / Amylose cardiaque sénile. Amyloïde et processus athéromateux. Une série de 923 vérifications.

Amyloid diseases include a widely dispersed group of conditions. A part from secondary, primary, and familial amyloid diseases, and those due to endocrine tumours of the APUD system, there is a tendency to isolate a group of senile amyloid diseases affecting mainly the heart. A study in a series of 923 elderly subjects demonstrated a negative correlation between amyloid disease and atheromatosis. As certain secondary amyloid diseases, particularly those secondary to myeloma, are, inversely, sometimes associated with rapidly developing atherosclerosis, this suggests the need for further studies to define the relationship between the two processes.

Degree of granulation of atrial cardiocytes: its decrease after aorto-caval fistula in the rat.

The experimental creation of an aorto-caval fistula in the rat leads to a decrease of the degree of granulation of atrial cardiocytes. This decrease is significant for granules distal to the nucleus and not for paranuclear granules. This partial degranulation reinforces the hypothesis according to which atrial cardiocytes participate in some sensitivity to local changes in blood pressure and flow.

[Arterial intimal proliferation in the rat : nature and origin of the proliferating cells]. / Prolifération intimale artérielle chez le rat : nature et provenance des cellules proliférantes.

This study had two objectives: 1) Identification of the type of cell involved in intimal proliferation (endothelial cells, smooth muscle fibres or fibroblasts). 2) Determination of the origin. For this purpose a model was used which consisted of implantation in the rat of femoral arterial segments in the interstitial tissue. Sequential examination of tissue collected on days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 revealed that proliferation was more marked if not solely present at the extremities of the segments. The proliferating cells were also in continuity with the extravascular granulation tissue, which would appear to indicate that the intimal proliferation in this model came from the cells of the granulation tissue and "muscular" differentiation occurred in contact with the endothelium.

Myocardial lesions induced by rapeseed oil-rich diet in the rat: ultrastructural aspects.

Rats were fed a diet containing 15 g% of rapeseed oil rich in erucic acid (55%). At different stages of the experiment, the hearts were examined in the electron microscope and planimetric studies were performed, with special attention to lipid accumulation and mitochondrial mass. The already known data concerning the early appearance and reversibility of the intracellular lipidosis, the delay (2 to 3 months) in the occurrence of the cellular lesions, and the lack of correlation between the degree of lipidosis and degenerative changes were confirmed...