[Acquired cutaneous osteomatosis. A primary monomelic form]. / Ostéomatose cutanée acquise: une forme monomélique primitive.

Eight cases of sporadic acquired primary osteoma cutis have been reported in the literature. Age at onset varies from 16 to 55 years with a mean of about 35 years. The sex ratio is 1 and a wide range of localizations have been reported. There is no known treatment. We report a new case of primary osteoma cutis observed in an adult. The monomelic feature of this case has not been reported previously. The patient was 76 years old and had multiple painless, stone-like formations at several sites on the left thigh and leg since the age of 40. Histological examination of skin biopsies showed a perfectly differentiated bone tissue in the dermal layer. There was no similar family history nor abnormal morphotype. Likewise, the absence of laboratory signs of pseudohypoparathyroidism, together with the late and spontaneous onset allowed us to eliminate hereditary Albright's osteodystropy or secondary osteomatosis due to a local pathological process. Despite the late onset, the monomelic character of the osteomas observed and the association of hemicorporeal hypertrophy and linear basocellular naevi reported in the literature would suggest a hamartomatous origin rather than a metaplasic process in this patient.

[Vasculitis in children's dermatomyositis (author's transl)]. / La vascularite dans la dermatomyosite de l'enfant.

Vascular lesions have been discovered by a number of authors in children's dermatomyositis, when they are not ordinary found in adults. Affecting capillaries, arterioles and veinlets, vasculitis appears as an hyperplasia of intima, then as an endothelial necrosis and formation of thrombi. Usually seen with light microscope, these lesions are sometimes only revealed by electron microscope. These vascular lesions are observed in the muscle and mainly in the perimysial interstitial tissue, in the skin, and in the various visceral localisations of the disease: pulmonary, ocular, renal, nervous and mainly digestives. The ulcerations of the digestive tube are due to little infarcts secondary to submucous arteriolar occlusions. The presence of necrotizing microangiopathy in the muscle, in the skin and in the viscera, and the observation by an author of macroglobulin, gammaglobulin and C3 deposits in the vascular walls allows to issue an aetiopathogenic hypothesis. The vascular lesions could be due, at least partly, to immune complex deposits, explained by an allergic mechanism of type III of Gell and Coombs. This process could be released by a viral factor which has to be determined. This pathogeny could bring children's dermatomyositis nearer to the other circulating immune complexe collagenosis: S. L. E., periarteritis nodosa with which many transition form exist, and could separate it to the adults dermatomyositis, which would rather be a disease due to an exacerbation of the delayed hypersensitivity type IV of Gell and Coombs.

[Economic aspects of the treatment of leg ulcers]. / Incidences économiques du mode de traitement des ulcères de jambe.

The authors have compared the healing time and the cost of leg ulcers of venous origin according to whether they were treated on an out-patient basis or by admission to hospital. The healing times were extremely similar, but the cost of cure by hospital admission was twenty times as great. Although one cannot claim to cure all leg ulcers on an out-patient basis, it is clear that significant public economies could be achieved by avoiding or shortening some costly hospital admissions.

[Duhring's and coeliac's diseases (author's transl)]. / Dermatite herpétiforme et maladie coeliaque.

An atrophy of villi without digestive troubles is found in a 3 1/2 years old boy with a typical Duhring's disease. This observation proves the interest to research an enteropathy in case of dermatitis herpetiformis, and on the other hand the gluten free diet's efficacity on the cutaneous lesions. The authors consider cutaneous lesions's pathogeny and the antigenic relations between these two diseases.

[Melanocytes in epiloia; ultrastructural aspects (about 7 cases) (author's transl)]. / les mélanocytes dans l'épiloïa; aspects ultrastructuraux (a propos de 7 cas).

Hypopigmented macules of epiloia have been studied by photonic and electron microscopy in 7 cases. The number of melanocytes was not decreased but these cells were hypotrophic and had a low tyrosinae activity. The melanosomes were smaller in size and their maturation rate was greatly reduced; many abnormal round and granular melanosomes, phaeomelanosome-like, were observed. In one case, such abnormal melanocytes were also occasionally found in normally pigmented control skin.