[Epidemiological, clinical, therapeutic and evolutionary profile of ocular manifestations in patients with Behçet's disease]. / Œil et Maladie de Behçet: profil épidémiologique, clinique, thérapeutique et évolutif.

This study aims to analyze the epidemiological, clinical, therapeutic and evolutionary profile of ocular manifestations in patients with Behçet's disease. We conducted a retrospective, descriptive study of the medical records of 121 patients managed by specialists with expertise in this disease over a period of one year and a half between January 2015 and June 2016. The average age of patients was 35 years, 63.6% of patients were male, ocular involvement was inaugural in 24% of cases. Patients had anterior uveitis (7.4%), posterior uveitis (15.7%), vasculitis (19%), irido-crystalline synechias (17.5%), macular edema (7.4%), optic atrophy (4.1%), papillary edema (2.5%) and peripheral retinal ischemia (1.7%). In our series, 41.3% of patients were under colchicine, 23.1% under oral corticosteroids, 9% under intravenous corticosteroids, 4.9% under topical corticosteroids, 8.2% under immunosuppressive drugs and 5.8% under vitamin K antagonists. After an average follow-up of 1 year, 40% of patients had stable visual acuity while receiving treatment, 23% had a significant decrease in visual acuity and 5% of cases had complete vision loss. Adequate therapy enables quick containment of the infection and decreases the frequency and severity of recurrences, thus leading to an improvement of the visual prognosis in our patients compared with outcomes in some previous case serie.

3-day treatment with azithromycin 1.5% eye drops versus 7-day treatment with tobramycin 0.3% for purulent bacterial conjunctivitis: multicentre, randomised and controlled trial in adults and children.

AIM: To compare the efficacy and safety of Azyter, azithromycin 1.5% eye drops, for 3 days with tobramycin 0.3% for 7 days to treat purulent bacterial conjunctivitis. METHODS: This was a multicentre, randomised, investigator-masked study including 1043 children and adults with purulent bacterial conjunctivitis. Patients received either azithromycin 1.5% twice-daily for 3 days or tobramycin 0.3%, 1 drop every two hours for 2 days, then four times daily for 5 days. Clinical signs were evaluated and cultures obtained at D0, D3 and D9 (where D refers to "day"). Primary variable was the clinical cure at the Test-of-Cure (TOC)-visit (D9+/-1), for patients with D0-positive cultures. The cure was defined as: bulbar conjunctival injection and discharge scores of 0. RESULTS: Among 471 patients with D0-positivity in the per protocol set, 87.8% of the azithromycin 1.5% group and 89.4% of the tobramycin group were clinically cured at the TOC-visit. Azithromycin was non-inferior to tobramycin for clinical and bacteriological cure. Clinical cure was significantly higher with azithromycin 1.5% at D3. The safety profile of azithromycin was satisfactory with a good patient and investigator's acceptability. CONCLUSIONS: Azithromycin 1.5% for 3 days was as effective and as safe as tobramycin for 7 days. Furthermore, more azithromycin than tobramycin patients presented an early clinical cure at Day 3. Due to its twice daily dosing regimen for 3 days, azithromycin represents a step forward in the management of purulent bacterial conjunctivitis, especially in children.

Molecular characterisation of Chlamydia pneumoniae associated to atherosclerosis.

Chlamydia pneumoniae is a respiratory pathogen associated with chronic inflammatory diseases such as asthma and atherosclerosis, and its detection in human carotid and coronary atheroma suggests some support for its involvement in atherogenesis. The main objective of our study was to evaluate the association between Chlamydia pneumoniae and atherosclerosis in Moroccan patients through a case-control approach and detected strain genotyping. A total of 137 cases and 124 controls were enrolled, nested PCR was performed for Chlamydia pneumoniae screening of the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of both cases and controls as well as atheroma plaques from 37 cases, and positive samples were subjected to sequencing for genotyping and phylogenetic analysis. The results showed 54% and 18%, respectively, for positivity in cases and control PBMCs and 86.5% in atheroma plaques, the difference being significant between the two groups (P < 0.001, ORa = 8.580, CI, 95% [3.273-22.491]). Strain sequence analyses showed more than 98% similarity with human reference strains, and revealed various genotypes. This study supports the involvement of Chlamydia pneumoniae in atherosclerosis in the studied population and genotyping revealed that detected strains were identical to human strains circulating worldwide.