[Multifocal osteonecrosis revealing an antiphospholipid syndrome : case report]. / Le cas clinique du mois. Ostéonécrose aseptique multifocale révélant un syndrome antiphospholipide primaire.

This article illustrates the case of a 30-year-old woman presenting with multifocal osteonecrosis as the first symptom of a primary antiphospholipid syndrome. The association of multifocal osteonecrosis and primary antiphospholipid syndrome without any medical history of vascular thrombosis or pregnancy complications remains rare.

Nous rapportons le cas clinique d'une jeune femme de 30 ans présentant une ostéonécrose multifocale comme premier symptôme d'un syndrome antiphospholipide primaire. L'association d'une ostéonécrose multifocale et d'un syndrome antiphospholipide primaire reste très rare en l'absence d'une histoire de thrombose vasculaire ou de complications durant la grossesse.

[Progressive muscular weakness of lower limbs revealing a limb girdle muscular dystrophy]. / Faiblesse progressive des membres inférieurs révélatrice d'une dystrophie musculaire des ceintures.

We report the case of a 26-year-old man who initiated a limb girdle muscular dystrophy (lgmd2b). It is a rare and slowly progressive autosomal recessive dysferlinopathy occurring in young adults and for which no treatment is currently known.

Nous rapportons le cas clinique d'un homme de 26 ans présentant une dystrophie musculaire des ceintures de type 2b (lgmd2b). Il s'agit d'une dysferlinopathie autosomique récessive, pathologie rare, lentement progressive, survenant chez de jeunes adultes et pour laquelle aucun traitement n'est actuellement connu.

[Epithelioid hemangioma, a rare bone tumor]. / Le cas clinique du mois. Hémangiome épithélioïde, une tumeur osseuse rare.

A case of pathological hip fracture associated with an epithelioid hemangioma is reported. Epithelioid hemangioma is a benign tumor, rarely localized in a bone. When the tumor is found on the skeleton, it generally involves a long bone. X-ray does not permit the differenciation of epithelioid hemangioma from other, malignant, vascular tumors. Therefore, the diagnosis requires surgery. Although no consensus treatment guidelines exist, the curettage--filling is most often proposed.

A psychophysiological study of the use of partial information in stimulus-response translation.

Ss performed a hybrid go/no-go reaction task in which colored letters were assigned in various ways to 4 finger responses, 2 on each hand. In addition to reaction time, psychophysiological measures were used to assess the duration of stimulus identification and the onset of central and peripheral motor activity. The results suggest that response selection can begin on the basis of 1 stimulus dimension (e.g., color), while the other dimension (e.g., letter form) has not yet been identified. Other results are discussed with regard to "selection for action" (Allport, 1987) and the importance of stimulus-response translation strategies in the use of partial information.

Direct costs of hip fractures in patients over 60 years of age in Belgium.

OBJECTIVE: Osteoporosis-related costs are now considered a major burden for health authorities in most developed countries. An accurate and exhaustive evaluation of these costs would be a major contribution to health economic studies evaluating the efficiency of screening and prevention strategies. Osteoporosis is the most frequent underlying cause of femoral neck fractures in the elderly; these fractures weigh heavily on healthcare budgets. However, in Belgium, very few data on the financial burden of hip fractures are available and no updated estimates have been made. The goal of this paper is to estimate the direct medical expenditures associated with hip fractures in Belgium in 1996. DESIGN AND SETTING: This 1-year population-based cross-sectional study is conducted from the social security perspective. The target population in this study are men and women aged 60 years and over. PATIENTS AND PARTICIPANTS: We selected patients who had been hospitalised for a hip fracture during the year 1996 who were also affiliated with a registered social security organisation (covering 25% of the Belgian population). The sample constituted 2374 patients. INTERVENTIONS: For each of these patients, we collected an exhaustive and detailed list of healthcare resource use as well as nursing home admissions following the hip fracture event. Cost items investigated in the analysis were inpatient hospital costs and outpatient costs. Mean annual costs per case recorded in the sample were then extrapolated to the whole country on the basis of an exhaustive list of diagnoses having lead to all countrywide hospitalisations (1,700,000 hospital stays/year). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES AND RESULTS: The mean hospital inpatient costs for hip fracture were evaluated at 332,148 Belgian francs (BeF) [$US8977] per case and BeF4,367,746,200 ($US118,047,194) for the whole country (10 million inhabitants). Patients with a hip fracture experienced an annual BeF27,825 ($US752) extra outpatient cost during the year following this fracture event, after correcting for costs related to additional comorbidity already present before the hip fracture. Finally, after a proximal femoral neck fracture, the rate of nursing home admission was higher, both for men and women at any age compared with age- and gender-matched population. CONCLUSIONS: With a total cost (acute hospital and outpatient costs) of BeF4,667,894,950 ($US126,159,323) per year in Belgium, proximal femoral neck fracture should be considered a major health economic problem and appropriate measures to prevent this disease should be rapidly undertaken.