Defining the mimics and clinico-histological diagnosis criteria for mycosis fungoides to minimize misdiagnosis.

BACKGROUND: Mycosis fungoides (MF) is a significant diagnostic challenge; it has various differential diagnosis especially at an early stage. Our aim was to describe mimics of MF clinically and histologically, and to define significant diagnostic criteria of the disease. METHODS: This was a retro-prospective cohort of 370 patients in whom the diagnosis of MF was suspected clinically. RESULTS: MF was histologically confirmed in 15.4% of cases and rejected in 84.5%. Other identified histologically diagnosis were eczema, psoriasis; nonspecific dermatitis, lichen, lupus; pseudolymphoma, parapsoriasis and toxidermia. 4 patients with palmoplantar MF were wrongly treated as eczema, and 10 patients with psoriasiform MF were initially treated as psoriasis. We also described the clinical, histological and immunohistochemistry diagnostic criteria for distinguishing MF from benign dermatosis. CONCLUSIONS: Misdiagnosis of MF was a real problem for this study, because it shared common clinical and histological characteristics with other inflammatory diseases like eczema and psoriasis. Therefore, defining significant clinico-histological diagnosis criteria of MF would be of great help and would increase the accuracy of the diagnosis.

Responsiveness of the EuroQol EQ-5D and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) in rheumatoid arthritis patients receiving tocilizumab.

The aim of this study was to assess the responsiveness to change of the quality of life evaluated by the EuroQol Five Dimensions Questionnaire (EQ-5D) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) after biological treatment in a population of rheumatoid arthritis patients. A cohort of patients with RA (n = 29) treated with tocilizumab (TCZ) were analyzed in the study. The inclusion criteria were patients aged between 18 and 65 years, fulfilling American College of Rheumatology 1987 criteria for RA. All patients had inadequate response to methotrexate and with no prior biologic exposure. They were evaluated clinically including Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS28), and the European Quality of Life 5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) to measure the quality of life, and HAD assessed the anxiety and depression status at the initiation of treatment with anti-IL 6 receptor antibody agent and after 6 months. Sensitivity to change was quantified by the effect size (ES) before and after the treatment with TCZ. Among 29 patients with RA included in the study, 25 were females and 4 males. The mean age was 42 years ± 13.4 (SD). Three patients were excluded from the study before 24 weeks because of serious side effects, and five have missing data. The study population exhibited significant decreases in all measures of disease activity at 24 weeks. Physical activity expressed by the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) score increased through the observation period (for all p < 0.001). Sensitivity to change was high for the VAS and EQ-5D (ES 1.58 and 1.36, respectively) but only moderate for the HAD anxiety component (ES = 0.70) and small for the HAD depression component (ES = 0.4). The EQ-5D and VAS were more responsive than HADS to evaluate the quality of life on patient with RA treated with TCZ.

A shoulder-hand syndrome revealing a lung cancer.

Shoulder-hand syndrome is a reflex sympathetic dystrophy which is usually associated with minor trauma, fracture or surgical procedures on bones, or follows peripheral nerve injury. In the present report, we describe a patient who developed sympathetic dystrophy which revealed a lung cancer. Reflex sympathetic dystrophy, therefore, should be considered an occasional manifestation of a paraneoplastic syndrome warranting a thorough search for underlying malignancy.

Primary non-Hodgkin's lymphoma presenting as radicular syndrome: report of two cases.

We report two cases of primary Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in the spine leading to radicular compression secondary to infiltration of lumbar body vertebras. The two patients were free of either nodular or other extra-nodular disease. Treatment consisted of chemotherapy alone, one patient have had a cauda equina syndrome and surgical decompression was performed in emergency. The patients were in remission for 20 months after diagnosis. A review is given for the incidence of primary vertebral localization of lymphoma, its diagnosis, treatment and prognosis.

Acute pseudoseptic arthritis after viscosupplementation of the knee: a case report.

Intra-articular injections of hyaluronan are generally well tolerated; the most common adverse event associated with their use is an inflammatory reaction or a flare at the injection site. Naturally derived sodium hyaluronates have not been associated with pseudosepsis; we describe a case of severe arthritis mimicking acute septic arthritis after naturally hyaluronan. A 70-year-old woman had a medial femorotibial and patellofemoral compartment knee osteoarthritis. Hyaluronic acid injection was indicated because of the persistence of a pain while walking and restricted ability to walk 100 m, as well as the installation of a flessum. She was admitted for an evaluation of a joint effusion occurring within 48 h after the first hyaluronic acid intra-articular injection (first course), with no fever or chills. Joint fluid was found to be cloudy and contained 24,000 cells per mm(3). A knee aspiration was performed to evaluate the possibility of a joint infection. The examination of synovial fluid under phase contrast and polarizing microscopes showed no crystals, and culture on standard media was negative. Acute septic arthritis was considered to be the most likely diagnosis, and probabilistic antibiotic therapy was started. The result of the bacteriological examinations also returned negative. The absence of general signs, particularly fever and chills, with fast effusion regression in less than 4 days did not plead in favor of a septic origin. In front of this beam of arguments, antibiotic therapy was stopped after 4 days. The nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (Nimésulide) was given. The clinical and laboratory test abnormalities were normalized within 2 weeks. Our case has the particularity to occur after using Curavisc, which is known as producing no allergenic reactions. Moreover, the described reaction occurred with the very first infiltration within the very first course.

[Alexia without agraphia in the Arabic language. Neurolinguistic and and MRI study]. / Alexie sans agraphie en langue arabe. Etude neurolinguistique et IRM.

A 33 year-old woman developed an alexia without agraphia, a color anomia, a right hemianopia, an aphasic amnesia and a verbal amnesia. The brain MRI showed the lesions in the left splenium of corpus callosum, forceps major, optic radiations and anterieur temporal lobe. The fact that she measured writing comprehension and had complete recovery of reading impairment despite the persistence of anatomic lesions plead in favour of an active participation of the right hemisphere (RH) on reading; this capacity of the RH may be due to the linguistic particularities of arabic writing.