Presentation of two cases with hypermobility syndrome and review of the related literature.

The aim of this study was to show that simple criteria like Beighton and Brighton criteria are sufficient to determine a diagnosis of hypermobility and may be useful prior to performing excessive diagnostic studies on children with variable joint pain and limited range of motion. Additionally, this study underlines how limitations of deformed joints can be restored with physiotherapy, which can also help preventing further complications of hypermobility. This study reports the case of a five-year-old girl and her 10-year-old brother, who both were suffering from difficulty in holding a spoon. Our diagnosis was hypermobility syndrome. The patients showed significant improvement with physiotherapy of the elbows. Evaluating patients for hypermobility in routine rheumatologic examination will prevent unnecessary diagnostic studies and treatments. Moreover, although the most common initial symptom of hypermobility is pain (usually in the knees), a limited range of motion due to subluxations in any other joints, like the elbows, may be the first symptom.

Predictors and prognostic significance of troponin-I release following elective coronary angioplasty.

The objective of this study was to investigate the predictors and prognostic significance of post-procedural cardiac troponin (cTn)-I elevations in a consecutive series of patients who underwent elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). cTn-I was measured in 100 patients immediately before and within 24 h after the elective PCI. Post-procedural cTn-I elevation was observed in 27 of the 100 patients. In multivariate analysis, basal haemoglobin values and the number of repeated balloon dilatations were found to be independent predictors of cTn-I elevation. During the follow-up period of 12 +/- 1.2 months, the cTn-I-positive group had more major adverse cardiovascular events than the cTn-I-negative group (33.3% versus 16.4%, respectively), but the difference was not significant. An increase in cTn-I levels following elective PCI procedures was frequent but did not predict a poor long-term outcome.