[Metabolic rhabdomyolysis during statin therapy]. / Rhabdomyolyse métabolique au cours d'un traitement par statine.

The occurrence of rhabdomyolysis during statin treatment for dyslipidemia is a well-known side effect. However, the differential diagnosis of rhabdomyolysis is large. We report on a patient treated with statin who presented a rhabdomyolysis. The persistence of laboratory abnormalities allowed to discover a metabolic rhabdomyolysis, namely a carnitine palmitoyltransférase II deficiency. The diagnosis of the genetic abnormality allows to modify the therapeutic care.

[Retrospective study of anorexia nervosa: reduced mortality and stable recovery rates]. / Diminution de la mortalité et stabilité du taux de guérison dans le suivi de l'anorexie mentale.

OBJECTIVES: Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder that combines malnutrition, amenorrhea, and distorted body image. To learn more about the course of this disease we undertook a retrospective study of girls diagnosed with anorexia nervosa in the Saint Etienne Endocrinology Department between 1979 and 2004. METHODS: Patients were diagnosed according to DSMIV criteria. Data collected to complete the Morgan-Russell outcome assessment schedule included chronology of illness, patients' morphological features, anorexia type, treatment choice, patient's gynecological history, and social status. RESULTS: The study included 206 cases. The average follow-up period was 8.3 +/- 5.3 years. Defining recovery as stable BMI>17.5 kg/m2 for at least one year and recovery of normal menstruation, full recovery was observed in 55.8% and partial recovery in 25.7%, while 18.5% remained chronically ill. Early onset (i.e., during adolescence) was associated with good prognosis, and advanced emaciation and delayed or insufficient medical care with poor prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: The seriousness of this disease is due more to the incidence of cases that become chronic than to the mortality rate. Prediction of severity would be improved by taking into account underlying personality traits, such as addictive tendencies and depression.

Hypercorticism blunts circadian variations of osteocalcin regardless of nutritional status.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) and Cushing's syndrome (CS) are both responsible for osteoporosis. The mechanisms leading to osteoporosis in AN include hypogonadism, nutritional depletion, and in some cases hypercorticism. Osteocalcin circulating level is a serum marker of osteoblastic activity that follows a circadian rhythm (OCR). Serum osteocalcin is decreased in both CS and AN and can be increased with treatment. In this study we analyzed the influence of combined cortisol and nutritional status on osteocalcin levels and its circadian rhythm in these two different models of hypercorticism, one nutritionally replete (CS) and one nutritionally deplete (AN), and we evaluated the effects of their treatment (surgical cure and weight gain, respectively). Before treatment, osteocalcin levels were lower in CS (n = 16) and AN (n = 42) than in controls and in the AN patient subgroup with hypercorticism (n = 13) compared to those without (n = 29). OCR was absent in CS and in AN patients with hypercorticism, whereas their circadian cortisol cycle was maintained. In CS, successful surgical treatment increased osteocalcin levels (n = 5) and restored OCR. In AN, weight gain (n = 13) induced a significant decrease in cortisol levels in hypercortisolic AN patients, and restored normal osteocalcin levels and OCR. In conclusion, we found that hypercorticism was associated with a decrease in osteocalcin levels in nutritionally replete or deplete patients and that OCR was more affected by cortisol levels than by cortisol cycle.

Efficacy of low doses of radioiodine in the treatment of autonomous thyroid nodules: importance of dose/area ratio.

Radioiodine (131I) represents an interesting alternative to surgery in the treatment of autonomously functioning thyroid nodules (AFTN), but leads to a significant incidence of hypothyroidism when high doses are used. Over 4 years, we have treated 40 patients (hyperthyroid [Plummer's disease]: 6, single hot nodules with undetectable thyrotropin [TSH] and normal serum free thyroxine [FT4]: 34), 34 single hot nodules with undetectable thyrotropin TSH and normal serum free thyroxine [FT4] with 131I. The dose level was neither related to the concentration of FT4 nor to the iodine uptake on thyroid scintigram. Retrospectively we measured the nodule's area on the scan and calculated the dose/area ratio (DAR). Three months after treatment, 30 patients were euthyroid, 9 were still hyperthyroid, and 1 was hypothyroid. The mean DAR of the euthyroid patients was twofold higher than for the hyperthyroid subjects (1.4 +/- 0.8 vs. 0.7 +/- 0.3 mCi/cm2; p = .003) and one-half the DAR for the hypothyroid patient (2.82 mCi/cm2). Twenty of the 30 euthyroid patients had received a dose higher than 1 mCi/cm2 and 7 of 9 hyperthyroid patients had received a dose lower than 1 mCi/cm2. (chi2 = 12.9; p = .02). The initial values of T4, TSH, and dose level of patients who were euthyroid or hyperthyroid at 3 months were not different. These data suggest that the efficacy of 131I for treating AFTN depends on the DAR, rather than the initial T4 value or the 131I uptake. A DAR between 1 and 1.5 mCi/cm2 seems to be optimal and avoids hypothyroidism.

[Study of variations of osteocalcin concentrations in function of collection, assay method and its nyctohemeral rhythm]. / Etude des variations de concentrations de l'ostéocalcine en fonction du mode de prélèvement, de la méthode de dosage et de son cycle nycthéméral.

Osteocalcin or bone GLA protein (BGP) can be used as well as a peripheral marker of the action of hormones on osteoblast. In the present study, we report our clinical and biological results in three different conditions: the kits used for determination, the time and the hour of withdrawal. We used 4 different radioimmunoassay kits: two kits (Elsa-os-nat (cis), Osca-test (Henning)) detect intact osteocalcin molecules only and the two others (Elsa-osteo(cis), Ostk-PR(cis)) detect intact osteocalcin molecules and osteocalcin fragments. Time between collection and assay is important: we observed a diminution of osteocalcin level which can be due to the degradation of intact molecules, of 25% to 49% (depending on the kit used). The clinical profile was studied with circadian rhythm. We observed a variation of osteocalcin level in 30% of circadian rhythm according to the hour of collection sample. In conclusion, we have seen two differents situations at risk of wrong interpretation due to low level BGP: inadequate serum collection or single blood collection instead of circadian cycle.

[Acute pituitary necrosis after multiple pituitary stimulation test]. / Nécrose hypophysaire aiguë après test de multistimulation hypophysaire.

Iatrogenic necrosis of the pituitary gland is well-known but rarely caused by stimulation tests used to investigate pituitary adenomas; 26 cases have been reported in the literature. We report 2 new cases where the chronology of the events suggests the sudden necrosis resulted from stimulation tests. Several mechanisms have been proposed. It is not possible to define increased risk as a function of the adenoma histology. In most cases, voluminous tumors are revealed by visual dysfunction. These accidents should not overshadow the role of function tests in neurosurgical situations. Outcome is usually favorable after acute necrosis.

[Standardized ambulatory insulin therapy of initial moderate ketoacidosis in type 1 diabetes. A pilot project]. / Insulinothérapie standardisée ambulatoire de l'acidocétose modérée inaugurale du diabéte de type 1. Etude pilote.

Most textbooks advise that newly diagnosed insulin dependent mellitus be admitted to the hospital for starting carefully insulin treatment. We report a pilot study for starting an outpatient insulin using continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion. In 40 newly IDDM (glycaemia over 16.5 mM/l, CO2 over 15 mM/l), intensive therapy was done by CSII = basal rate 1 unit/hour, bolus 5 units per meal. After a long explanatory talk (4 hours) with the physician and the nurse on hypo, hyperglycaemia, on blood glucose sensor and pump, 21 patients agreed to start insulin at home and 19 remained in hospital for 2 or 7 days. At days 3, 30 and 365, clinical and biological evaluation was done and at D30 patient education program for 5 days was undergone. Never emergency even was reported in any patient, and no difference appeared between the in and out patient in D1, D3 and D365 normalisation of blood glucose (3 days) or level cetone body (2 days) and total insulin dose. Our results suggest that outpatient is a safe and cost effective IDDM onset therapy.

Weight gain reverses bone turnover and restores circadian variation of bone resorption in anorexic patients.

OBJECTIVE: The present study was conducted in order to describe the variations and circadian rhythm of biochemical markers of bone remodelling at baseline and after weight gain in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN). SUBJECTS: We studied 9 women (mean age 21 years, range: 16-30) with established AN who remained amenorrhoeic during the study and with a low body mass index (BMI) after refeeding and 6 female controls (mean age 20 years, range, 18-24 and BMI: 20.6 +/- 1.1 kg/m2). Refeeding was not associated with any other intervention or treatment, especially oestrogen replacement or hormonal contraception. Serum levels of oestradiol remained below 70 pmol/l before and after refeeding. MEASUREMENTS: During the study, PTH and 25-hydroxyvitamin D measurements were performed. Markers of bone formation: serum intact osteocalcin (iBGP) and serum intact BGP + fragments (iBGP+F) and markers of bone resorption: urine C-teloptide of type I collagen (uCTX) and serum C-telopeptide ofvtype 1 collagen (s-CTX) were measured. RESULTS: At baseline, PTH and 25 OH-vitamin D concentrations were within the normal range in AN patients and no significant variation was observed after refeeding. Bone formation markers were found to be significantly different at baseline between AN patients and controls. After refeeding, iBGP and iBGP+F levels increased by 172% and 154%, respectively, to values no different from controls. Intact BGP and iBGP+F exhibited a significant circadian variation in controls (P < 0.05 and P < 0.002, respectively), whereas we did not find any such circadian rhythm in AN patients. After refeeding no significant circadian variation was observed; however, iGBP+F tended to peak in early morning and exhibited a nadir in the afternoon. At baseline, sCTX was 2-fold higher in AN patients than in controls. After weight gain sCTX decreased significantly and reached control values. Refeeding induced a non-significant 40% decrease in uCTX. We found positive correlations between uCTX and the 24-h mean value of sCTX levels (r2 = 0.93, P < 0.0001) and between uCTX and the mean value of sCTX peak levels at 0800 h (r2 = 0.65, P < 0.0003). Serum CTX exhibited a significant circadian variation in controls (P < 0.001) with a peak at 0800 h and a nadir at 1600 h with a 60% decrease between peak and nadir values. We found that anorexia nervosa suppressed the sCTX circadian variation which was restored by refeeding. We found a significant non-linear relationship between BMI and sCTX/iBGP ratio in AN (r2 = 0.6, P < 0.0001), thus illustrating the influence of nutritional status on bone remodelling. CONCLUSIONS: In this study we found that weight gain, related to refeeding only, reversed the anorexia nervosa-induced uncoupling of bone remodelling and restored circadian variation of a bone resorption marker.