Dietary habits in patients with fibromyalgia: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: To the scarce information on dietary habits in fibromyalgia (FM), it is added that there are no comparative studies with other rheumatic diseases. The objective of this study was to characterise the dietary habits of patients with FM by comparing, for the first time, with healthy controls (HC) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS: This cross-sectional, observational study was based on data obtained from the Dietfibrom project for FM and from the IMID Consortium for RA and HC. All participants completed a food frequency questionnaire evaluating their weekly dietary intake of main food groups. The three cohorts were compared using a multiple logistic regression model adjusted for age, sex, and body mass index. RESULTS: After quality control, n=287 FM, n=1,983 HC and n=1,942 RA patients were analysed. We found that FM had a profound impact in the diet compared to HC, reducing the consumption of dairy (OR=0.32, p<0.0001), bread and/or whole grain cereals (OR=0.59, p=0.0006), fresh fruit (OR=0.66, P=0.008), and fish (OR=0.64, p=0.002). These same four food groups were also significantly reduced in FM patients in comparison to RA patients (p<0.0005 in all cases). Additionally, a lower consumption of pasta, rice and/or potatoes was also observed in FM compared to RA (OR=0.72, p=0.028). CONCLUSIONS: The present cross-sectional study shows that FM is associated to a significant change in the normal dietary patterns. These results underscore the importance of diet in this prevalent disease and are a warning of the potential long-range effects of a deficient nutritional status.

Treatment of Ewing sarcoma family of tumors with a modified P6 protocol in children and adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Reported overall survival (OS) rates of patients with localized Ewing sarcoma family of tumors (ESFT) are >80% when treated with the MSKCC P6 protocol. However, it has been associated with a 5.8% incidence of secondary leukemias. A modified P6 (mP6) protocol with reduced exposure to chemotherapy is presented. PROCEDURE: Thirty-one newly diagnosed ESFT patients were enrolled onto this phase II, single-arm, non-randomized protocol. Courses 1, 2 and 4 consisted of cyclophosphamide 4.2 g/m², doxorubicin 75 mg/m², and vincristine 2 mg/m² (CDV). Cycles 3 and 5 consisted of ifosfamide 9 g/m² and etoposide 500 mg/m² (IE). Course 5 ifosfamide was 14 g/m² if necrosis was <90%. RESULTS: Twenty-four patients had loco-regional disease and seven had metastases. The 4-year event-free survival (EFS) rate for patients with localized tumors is 83% and overall survival (OS) is 92%. The 3-year EFS rate for patients with distant metastases is 28% and OS rate is 42%. EWS-FLI1 fusion genes were detected in 17 cases (74%) and EWS-ERG in six cases (26%). Type 1 EWS-FLI1 variant was present in 6/7 metastatic patients and 3/16 loco-regional cases (P = 0.001). None of the patients experienced tumor progression before remission. All relapses occurred within 2 years from the end of treatment and local relapses (n = 3) happened in patients who did not receive radiation therapy. No secondary malignancies have been observed, median follow-up of 4.3 years for surviving patients. CONCLUSIONS: In this pilot study, the mP6 protocol produced a complete remission rate of 83% at 4 years in non-metastatic ESFT reducing the risk of secondary malignancies.

Long-term results of the Spanish Protocol SO-95 for the treatment of non-metastatic high-grade osteosarcoma of the extremities in children.

INTRODUCTION: The long-term results of the Spanish Study Protocol SEOP-SO-95 for treatment of localised osteosarcoma of the extremities in children were evaluated. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred consecutive patients under 18 years of age from 22 institutions were enrolled from January 1995 to December 2000. Immunohistochemical expression of p53, HER/erbB-2 and P-glycoprotein were retrospectively studied in 27 patients. Treatment consisted of: preoperative chemotherapy with doxorubicin, cisplatin, high-dose methotrexate with leucovorin rescue and ifosfamide for 14 weeks; surgery of primary tumour in week 16; postoperative chemotherapy with the above-mentioned drugs for 25 weeks. RESULTS: With a median follow-up of 124 months (range 84-158 months), 69 patients (69%) were continuously event-free survivors; the 10-year probability of event-free survival (EFS) was 62%. Conservative surgery was performed in 85% of patients. Twenty-six patients had local recurrence or distant relapse. The median time to recurrence/ relapse was 27 months (range 17-93 months). The local recurrence rate was 7% (7 of the 100 patients); 4 had wide surgical margins, 2 marginal and 1 intralesional. Four patients died as a result of chemotherapy-related toxicity and 1 developed a second neoplasia (acute myeloid leukaemia). p53 expression and HER2/erbB-2 expression showed no effect on survival or EFS. CONCLUSIONS: This therapeutic protocol achieved good oncologic and orthopaedic results. We observed a significant treatment-related toxicity.

Enhanced culture detection of Kingella kingae, a pathogen of increasing clinical importance in pediatrics.

Osteoarticular infection and occult bacteremia are the 2 invasive infectious pathologies most frequently associated in childhood with Kingella kingae. We report a series of 11 patients in whom osteomyelitis predominates over septic arthritis, which is the reverse of other series, probably as a consequence of inoculation of samples during surgery on agar media, used in combination with or as an alternative to inoculation into blood culture bottles. Although K. kingae infections usually follow a benign clinical course, we noted 2 patients with mild orthopedic sequelae.