Coagulopathies and arterial stroke.

Although hypercoagulable states are most often associated with venous thrombosis, arterial thromboses are reported in protein S, protein C, and antithrombin III deficiencies, factor V Leiden and prothrombin gene mutations, hyperhomocysteinemia, dysfibrinogenemia, plasminogen deficiency, sickle cell disease, and antiphospholipid antibody syndrome.

Idiopathic (asymptomatic) monoclonal gammopathies.

Asymptomatic forms of monoclonal gammopathies (MG) are recognized with increasing frequency; their recognition and differentiation from the symptomatic forms of MG appear imperative, since the therapeutic approaches are different. Available clinical and laboratory indexes lack specificity required for useful and practical discrimination; presently, we must still rely on the timecourse monitoring of such laboratory values as hemoglobin levels, M-protein concentrations, and presence of Bence Jones proteins. Elucidation of histocompatibility A and W antigenic profiles, as well as the functions and kinetics of B-lymphocytes from such patients, appear most promising. Evidence of the causative role of extrinsic and intrinsic antigenic stimulation in MG production is increasing; segregation into two distinct concentration ranges of M-proteins in the asymptomatic and symptomatic groups suggests two control levels of the expression of immune response (Ir) genes, due to partial or complete derepression of the latent Ir gene function, reflecting "partial" (asymptomatic, benign MG) and "complete" (symptomatic, malignant MG) monoclonal immune responders.

[Immunoglobulins and dysglobulinemias. Introduction and general data]. / Immunoglobulines et dysglobulinémies. Introduction et données générales

The author reviews the present state of knowledge of value in rheumatology concerning serum immunoglobulins, their structure, their cellular biosynthesis, and their relation to membrane immunoglobulins of the B lymphocytes. He then examines the concept of dysglobulinaemia and explains why the terms monoclonal immunoglobulin and monoclonal immunoglobulinopathy are preferable to dysglobulinaemia and paraprotein. The clinical and immunochemical classification of monoclonal immunoglobulins, the problem of amylosis, and the relationship with plasmocytic dyscrasias and with the cryoglobulins are then discussed. Afterwards the pathogeny of these affections is briefly considered.