[Partial decalcifying algodystrophy]. / L'algodystrophie décalcifiante partielle.

Partial decalcifying algodystrophy (PDA) appears in two forms: one, a radial form, affects, following a certain metameric topography, one or two radiuses of the hand or of the foot (two cases reported); the other, a zonal form, is more peculiar: only part of a condyle or of the femoral head, are demineralized for two to three months. The authors report 7 cases of this misleading zonal form, 2 of them after histological verification. The image leads to various diagnostic errors: osteitis or infectious osteo-arthritis, acute inflammation close to the bone, and especially malignant processes. However, zonal PDA has its own characteristics: demineralization, that becomes clear only during the second month, and quickly extends over a rather long sub chondral bone surface. Tomography is very useful: it demonstrates better the severe sub chondral osteoporosis and the retention of the bone sole, which becomes detached from the bone. Scintigraphy shows the massive localized or panregional hyperfixation and sometimes other infraradiological sites (hips, knee or ankle). Zonal osteoporosis remains partial and misleading for only 2 or 3 months, after which it becomes a classical panregional form. The rate of development is that of DA. Painful impotence quickly increases, with cure in 6 months.

Increased association of diabetes mellitus with capsulitis of the shoulder and shoulder-hand syndrome.

Sixty consecutive patients with capsulitis of the shoulder (including those with shoulder-hand syndrome) seen in our clinic since 1971 underwent an oral glucose tolerance test (5 with previously recognized diabetes were excluded from this test). Capsulitis was primary in 35, secondary to other factors in 25 subjects. Females (34) out-numbered males (26). Their ages ranged from 40 to 72 years (mean age: 54 years). Sixty control subjects matched for age and sex with the 60 "capsulitis" patients underwent the same OGTT (except one with previously recognized diabetes). We have found diabetes in 17 out of 60 patients with capsulitis according to Hayner's criteria (12 according to Jackson's criteria) versus 7 (2 according to Jackson's criteria) in the 60 control subjects. The difference is statistically significant by both methods, with a p value of less than 0.02).

[Gout, hyperuricemia and femur head osteonecrosis (FHON)]. / Goute, hyperuricémie et ostéonécrose de la tête fémorale (ONTF)

The authors report on 14 cases of osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH) in patients suffering from gout. The cases of association were discovered over a period of 10 years among 232 patients with ONFH and 651 with gout. The necrosis had no particular characteristics except that there was a clear preponderence in males and a slight tendency to be bilateral; it occurred, perhaps, at a slightly earlier age. The patients with gout did not show any special clinical features ; the gout always preceded the necrosis, on average by 7 1/2 years. There was no obvious history of painful crises in the hip that could be attributed to the acute gout, except in one case. The excess of urate was detected by the baseline level of uricaemia (91 mg/litre on average), by the frequency of tophus (4 out of 14), and by the frequency of urinary lithiasis (2 out of 14), and did not appear to be any greater in the patients with gout and ONFH than it was in the whole of the population of gout patients. In those patients in whom it was estimated, the lipid analysis showed most frequently an increase in total lipids, in triglyceridaemia, and in cholesterolaemia. In the 5 patients in whom the investigations were sufficiently detailed, the dyslipidaemia was of Frederickson type II + IV (mixed hyperlipidaemia according to de Gennes' classification). Different physiopathological hypotheses are discussed by the authors, notably those concerned with micro-particulate fatty emboli (lipomicrons), which may obstruct, among others, the terminal arteries of the femoral head. Of the 6 patients for whom it was possible to obtain information, for an average period of 10 years since the onset of the necrosis, 2 had presented with untreated hyperlipidaemia and a severe general vascular illness (myocardial infarction in one case and regressive hemiplegia in the other). These findings lead to the conclusion that correction of the hyperlipidaemia by diet is indispensable to ensure the long-term survival of these patients.

[Radiographic study of the hand in 50 cases of primary articular chondrocalcinosis. Comparison with a control series of 100 subjects]. / Etude radiographique de la main dans 50 cas de chondrocalcinose articulaire primitive. Comparaison avec une série de 100 témoins

The authors analysed radiograms of the hands of 50 patients suffering from primary articular chondrocalcinosis (ACC) and compared them with those of 100 control subjects of similar sex and age. There were 40 women and 10 men, with an average age of 69.6 years (plus or minus 9.82). A chalky incrustation of the semilunar pyramidal interspace was observed in 40 percent of cases. The frequency of this incrustation was next in order of importance to incrustation of the triangular ligament which occurred in 52 percent of cases. The difference from the controls was highly significant (p less than 0.001). Voluminous geodes affecting one or more of the bone of the wrist were present in 20 percent of the patients with ACC and in 5 percent of the controls. The difference was significant (p less than 0.01). Chalky deposits were found in the soft tissues immediately next to a metacarpo-phalangeal articulation in 22 percent of the ACC patients but not in any of the controls. The difference was highly significant (p less than 0.001). These chalky deposits next to metacarpo-phalangeal articulations were always associated with chalky incrustation of the radio-carpal joint. As regards the radiological lesions, considered as being typical images of arthrosis and affecting the trapezo-metacarpal, metacarpo-phalangeal, and interphalangeal articulations, the chondrocalcinosis patients appeared to be more frequently affected than the controls, but the difference was not significant. On the other hand, a type of arthropathy occurs in ACC patients which also resembles an arthrosis radiologically but which was 5 times more frequent in them than in the controls and which in this series occurred without nearby trapezo-metacarpal arthropathy only in ACC patients (16 percent as against 0 percent in the controls: p less than 0.001); this was scapho-trapezial arthropathy. The finding of this kind of radiological lesion, particularly when it is not associated with lesions in the trapezo-metacarpal articulations should indicate the possibility of a diagnosis of ACC and should lead to radiological investigation of other sites.