High incidence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in North African immigrants to France.

During the 15-year period 1968-1982, 328 French residents died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD); 273 had been born in France (annual mortality rate of 0.38 per million inhabitants). Of the 55 foreign-born cases, 12 came from Tunisia and 11 from Algeria (mortality rates of 4.53 and 0.95 per million). Nearly all of the Tunisians were Jews, and six belonged to two families. These findings complement earlier observations on Libyan-born Israelis, but still do not discriminate between genetic or environmental causal factors, which will require epidemiologic investigation of CJD in North Africa.

[Paralysis of the posterior branch of the radial nerve caused by a lipoma]. / Paralysie de la branche postérieure du nerf radial due à un lipome.

A case of compression of the posterior branch of the radial nerve by a lipoma is reported. This case is unusual because of the large size of the tumor (13 cm x 6 cm) and the interest of CT to exclude a liposarcoma. The risk of liposarcoma is greater with large size tumors. Reported 27 cases have been analyzed. The posterior branch of the radical nerve is particularly vulnerable because of the anatomic relationships. Thus benign extraneural sof-tissue tumors of the extremities may be responsible of nerves compressions.

[Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the Paris area: ethnic origin of the patients]. / Maladie de Creutzfeldt-Jakob dans l'agglomération parisienne: origine ethnique des patients.

Twenty six (27 p. 100) of 96 patients dying from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the Paris metropolitan area between 1968 and 1982 were born in foreign countries although the proportion of foreign-born residents account for only 15 p. 100 of the population. The annual mortality rate of Creutzfeldt-Jakob's disease in this group of foreign-born cases (1.33 per million) was twice that of French-born residents (0.64 per million). Twenty of the 26 foreign-born cases originated from countries surrounding the Mediterranean sea, and 5 of 7 familial cases belonged to 2 Tunisian families. There was no spatial clustering of foreign-born cases and no relationship between their Paris residence and the percent of foreign-born people living in the same area. The disproportionate frequency of Creutzfeldt-Jakob's disease among foreign-born residents thus seems to be a contributing factor to the higher prevalence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob's disease in Paris when compared to the rest of France. It further suggests that the prevalence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob's disease in Mediterranean countries may be greater than expected.

[Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in France: an epidemiological update (author's transl)]. / Maladie de Creutzfeldt-Jakob en France. Contribution à une recherche épidémiologique.

We report here the results of a prospective epidemiological study of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in continental France during the years 1978-80, extending a retrospective study of the decade 1968-1977 previously reported. The new annual mortality figures are 0.53 cases per million people for France as a whole, and 1,01 cases per million people for the paris metropolitan area. The correlation between mortality rate and population density persists in the Parisian area, and is not related to differences in age composition of the density categories. Although the geographic distribution of CJD and Scrapie and completely unrelated, there is a correlation between lamb consumption and CJD mortality rates in different nationwide population categories.