Soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) concentrations in Graves' disease patients followed up for development of ophthalmopathy.

It is commonly recognized that a few patients with Graves' disease (GD) develop an overt ophthalmopathy, although most of them show subclinical extraocular muscle enlargement by appropriate imaging techniques. At present, it is not possible to identify the subgroup of GD patients with subclinical retroorbital connective involvement. Recently, it has been shown that increase of soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) serum levels is correlated to clinical activity score in active Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) patients with or without hyperthyroidism, suggesting that sICAM-1 serum values could reflect the degree of ocular inflammatory activity. The aim of this longitudinal study was to evaluate sICAM-1 serum levels in GD patients without clinical ophthalmopathy and to assess their possible relationship with occurrence of GO. We measured sICAM-1 serum levels in 103 initially hyperthyroid GD patients without clinical ophthalmopathy and in 100 healthy subjects. All patients were treated with methimazole for 2 yr. Sera were collected from all patients before treatment and then monthly for the first 6 months of therapy, every 2 months in the following 6 months, and finally at the end of the follow-up study. Patients developing GO were excluded from the follow-up at the onset of ophthalmopathy. During the follow-up 17 GD patients (16.5%, group 1) developed overt eye involvement (14 as active inflammatory ophthalmopathy and 3 as ophthalmopathy without clinical retroorbital connective inflammation) and 86 (83.5%, group 2) did not. At start of the study, the mean of sICAM-1 serum concentrations did not differ significantly between the 2 groups, but it was significantly higher than in controls in both groups. No significant correlation between serum sICAM-1 concentrations and free thyroid hormone levels was found in the 2 groups of patients. During the follow-up study, a further increase of sICAM-1 serum levels was observed in 12 of the 14 patients (85.7%) of group 1 who developed active inflammatory ophthalmopathy not only at the onset but also before clinical GO appearance. On the contrary, the 3 patients of group 1 that developed ophthalmopathy without clinical retroorbital inflammation did not show any further increase of sICAM-1 levels at every time of follow-up in comparison with the starting values, even if their sICAM-1 levels were always higher than in normal controls. Finally, group 2 patients showed significantly decreased sICAM-1 levels throughout the follow-up period when compared with the starting values, although they were still significantly higher than in controls. These results indicate that a further increase of sICAM-1 serum levels before the onset of clinical ophthalmopathy may be a marker of subclinical retroorbital connective inflammation in GD patients. Therefore, our study suggests that serial determinations of sICAM-1 serum levels could help to identify and trace at the right time those GD patients prone to developing active inflammatory ophthalmopathy.

[Autoimmune Addison's disease. Current knowledge and prospects]. / Morbo di Addison autoimmune. Attualità e prospettive.

Idiopathic Addison's disease (IAD) is a chronic organ-specific autoimmune disease sometimes associated with other autoimmune endocrine diseases. The prevalence is 50-100/million with an incidence of 5-6 cases/million/year. A genetic predisposition to this disease has been reported in subjects with phenotype HLA-DR3, -DR4, -A1, -B8 or HLA-A28, -B8; a phenotype HLA-B8 has been described in subjects with adrenal autoantibodies (AA) not progressing toward an overt disease. There is strong evidence that AA can play a pathogenic role or at least can be considered good immunological markers in IAD. AA may damage adrenal function by a cytotoxic process directed at adrenal cell surface or other intracellular antigens. An antigenic activity has been recently attributed to P450c enzymes and in particular to P450c21. Clinical manifestations of IAD can be preceded by a long period of subclinical adrenocortical impairment, characterized only by the presence of AA with or without adrenocortical function findings. In our experience, where AA titers were 1:8 or higher, progression of adrenal disease was likely with time. A spontaneous remission can indeed occur with lower titers, especially in early stages of subclinical adrenal insufficiency. Finally, a reversal of previously significant AA positive titers in patients in more advanced stages of subclinical adrenal insufficiency seems to be induced by corticosteroid therapy.

Subcutaneous Ewing sarcoma/PNET as a second cancer in a previously irradiated young patient. an uncommon type of post-irradiation soft tissue sarcoma.

Soft tissue sarcomas account for a small proportion of second cancers, with an estimated frequency of < 10%. The most common histologic type of soft tissue sarcomas as second cancers include mostly high-grade sarcomas, such as rhabdomyosarcoma, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour, fibrosarcoma, leiomyosarcoma, synovial sarcoma, alveolar soft part sarcoma and Ewing sarcoma/primitive neuroectodermal tumour (PNET). We report a case of superficial soft tissue Ewing sarcoma/PNET as a second cancer in a young patient previously treated for Hodgkin's disease (HD). To the best of our knowledge and based on a literature search, this is the first reported case of post-irradiation soft tissue Ewing sarcoma/PNET as a second cancer arising in the same area irradiated for cure of HD.