Search PubMedSearch

Biomedical subjects

G Barnéon

Publications and source records attributed to G Barnéon.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Acute colitis associated with prolonged administration of neuroleptics.

We describe a 29-year-old patient who developed acute colitis limited to the sigmoid and left colon with features mimicking ischemic injury after a prolonged administration of trifluoroperazine and levomepromazine, two phenothiazines in association with haloperidol, another neuroleptic, and biperidene, an anticholinergic compound. The discontinuation of these drugs was followed by a prompt and complete recovery, and no other cause of acute colitis was found. The subsequent administration of sultopride, a neuroleptic from the benzamide family and then the readministration of haloperidol were well tolerated. No colonic disorder occurred for the following months. This case strongly supports the view that neuroleptic agents, in particular phenothiazines, may induce acute colitis and that haloperidol, a butyrophenone derivative, or sultopride, a benzamide-related neuroleptic, can be administered thereafter without recurrence of the disease.

Adult

[An unusual miliary pattern].

Syndromes presenting with interstitial radiological signs are often difficult to diagnose aetiologically. Surgical biopsy prevents certain rare cases being neglected notably when there are atypical manifestations. We describe a case of bronchiolitis obliterans with an organising pneumonia which was classical as regards the histology and its response to treatment but unusual as regards the clinical presentation and the aetiology.

Adult

Eosinophilic inflammation in asthma.

BACKGROUND AND METHODS: The importance of eosinophils in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma is not established. In an attempt to evaluate the role of eosinophilic inflammation in asthma, we compared 10 normal subjects with 43 patients with chronic asthma, 19 of whom had severe disease as assessed by a clinical scoring method described by Aas and by pulmonary-function tests. Eosinophils were counted in peripheral blood and bronchoalveolar-lavage fluid, and in biopsy specimens obtained from the patients and post mortem from 8 subjects without asthma, but not from the 10 normal controls. Eosinophil cationic protein was titrated by radioimmunoassay in the bronchoalveolar-lavage fluid from all subjects and studied by immunohistochemistry in the biopsy specimens. RESULTS: There was a significant increase in the number of peripheral-blood eosinophils in the patients that was correlated with the clinical severity of asthma (P less than 0.001) and pulmonary function (P less than 0.03). Levels of eosinophils and eosinophil cationic protein were increased in the bronchoalveolar-lavage fluid from the patients and were also correlated with the severity of asthma (P less than 0.001 and P less than 0.002, respectively). Hematoxylin-eosin staining of bronchial-biopsy specimens showed that intraepithelial eosinophils were present only in patients with asthma. Immunohistochemical analysis of eosinophil cationic protein revealed that normal subjects had only a few nondegranulated eosinophils deep in the submucosa, whereas all the patients had degranulated eosinophils beneath the basement membrane and among epithelial cells. In some patients there was a relation between the presence of degranulated eosinophils and epithelial damage. CONCLUSIONS: Eosinophilic inflammation of the airways is correlated with the severity of asthma. These cells are likely to play a part in the epithelial damage seen in this disease.

Adult

Interstitial pulmonary disease induced by occupational exposure to paraffin.

An occupational interstitial pulmonary disease was observed in a 59-year-old workman after five years of massive exposure to aerosolized paraffin. Histologic studies of open-lung biopsy showed a lipoid pneumonia characterized by (1) alveolitis involving large lipid-laden macrophages and (2) interstitial fibrosis. Electron microscopy of AMs disclosed features of paraffin-laden cytoplasmic vacuoles. Successive treatments included prednisolone and cyclophosphamide. Despite these treatments and withdrawal from exposure, the pulmonary function became impaired progressively, resulting in restrictive syndrome and severe exertional dyspnea. Concomitantly, PMNs harvested by BAL increased, whereas initial lymphocytosis decreased. This is the first case observed of occupational interstitial fibrosis in which electron-microscopic findings clearly established a relationship with an exposure to paraffin. This observation also emphasizes the switch from alveolitis to fibrosis in the pathogenesis of interstitial pulmonary disease.

Humans

[Collagen colitis. Reflections apropos of 40 patients].

The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of a thickened subepithelial collagen band in the colon, its relationship to diarrhea, and the clinical relevance of its detection. During a 3.5 year period (May 1985-January 1989), a total of 3,323 biopsy specimens were obtained during 6,254 colonoscopies. A subepithelial collagen thickening greater than 10 microns was found in 40 patients (1.5 percent of the patients). Further assessment of these 40 patients showed that this histological lesion was characterized by a frequent association with chronic diarrhea (in 36 patients, i.e. 90 percent) whatever the cause, with diseases such as diabetes mellitus (8 cases) or inflammatory arthropathies (6 cases) and with a microscopic colitis in all cases. Course of collagen thickening was variable and independent of clinical course. Diarrhea was a constant finding when the collagen thickening was greater than 15 microns and frequently improved (12 patients/14) during treatment with Collagenan. This study suggests that a subepithelial thickened collagen band is an uncommon change in the colon and is frequently associated with chronic diarrhea. The significance of this morphological change is unknown, and its contribution to the pathogenesis of the diarrhea remains questionable.

Chronic Disease

[Diabetic cheiroarthropathy].

Cheiroarthropathy is quite frequent in diabetics, but is only really specific at stage III, which is the most characteristic form. It is all the more frequent as the diabetes is old, but remains unrelated to sex, age and type of diabetes. The stiffening of the joint readily extends to other joints. The patients are moderately alerted in the absence of other associated pathologies: trigger finger, Dupuytren's disease, carpal tunnel syndrome. All these manifestations form the "diabetic hand", of which cheiroarthropathy is only one component. The need for an accurate analysis with the purpose of appropriate treatments, should be emphasized. The angiologic and histopathological study of patients with stage III cheiroarthropathy, enables us to demonstrate moderate abnormalities of the microcirculation, which are quite different from those encountered in sclerodermia. The etiopathogenesis of cheiroarthropathy remains mysterious and is probably related to an alteration of the collagen metabolism. One of the most interesting component is the association between cheiroarthropathy and the micro-angiopathic complications of diabetes mellitus: cheiroarthropathy being the indicator of such diabetes.

Adult

[Acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis and malignant hematologic diseases: report of a new bullous case and review of the literature].

A new case of Sweet's syndrome (acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis) associated with a malignant hemopathy is presented. The blood disease was a chronic myelomonocytic dysmyelopoiesis which was discovered during the eruption and resulted in the patient's death within a few months, probably through acutization. The skin lesions were atypical, bullous and ulcerated. On this occasion, the international literature concerning all cases of Sweet's syndrome associated with malignant or premalignant hemopathies is reviewed. Several concepts emerge from this study: the association is frequent (about 20 p. 100 of all published cases of Sweet's syndrome); there is a strong predominance of granulocytic hemopathies over lymphoplasmocytic and monocytic hemopathies; the blood disease is revealed by the skin eruption in some 50 p. 100 of the patients; there are frequent chronological relations between Sweet's syndrome and the events that occur in the course of the hemopathy; finally, the association is usually of poor prognosis. A comparison with Sweet's syndrome unassociated with a blood disease showed only three significant points: the frequency of bullous lesions, of the initial anaemia (the most important element) and of extreme figures in leucocyte counts (leucopenia or major hyperleukocytosis). The atypical character of the skin lesions in the patient presented here incites to discuss the nosological relationship between Sweet's syndrome and bullous pyoderma, an entity closely associated with hemopathies. It has recently been suggested by several authors that this anatomico-clinical kinship should be turned into a wide spectrum of acute neutrophilic dermatoses, with typical Sweet's syndrome at one end and Pyoderma gangrenosum at the other end. The interface between this spectrum and haemopathies seems to be maximum at its intermediate stage: the bullous and superficially ulcerated lesions. The aetiology and pathogenesis of this new nosological entity are uncertain. The presence of chemoattractants or of polymorphonuclear cell abnormalities is still open to discussion. The relationship between the entity and leukocytoclastic vasculitis has recently been questioned.

Aged

[Multiple trichoepitheliomas, cylindromas and milia. An entity].

Four patients from two different families presented with multiple papular trichoepitheliomas of the face associated with cylindromas of the scalp and, in one of them, milium. This association, first described by Adamson, has now become classical. It is transmitted as an autosomal dominant trait with variable penetrance. Histochemical studies gave the following results: ATPase negative in the two types of tumour, phosphorylase weakly positive, NADH diaphorase positive in the basal cells of the trichoepitheliomas and diffusely in cylindromas. These results suggest that the cylindromas are of apocrine origin. Using monoclonal antibodies, it has been possible to demonstrate the presence of Langerhans cells in both trichoepitheliomas and cylindromas. The BL9 and KL3 antikeratinocyte monoclonal antibodies were negative, whereas the KL3 antibody, which recognizes the 55-57 Kd polypeptides of keratin, marked the suprabasal part of the tumours. These results are in favour of incomplete cell differentiation. Treatment with retinoids was ineffective, as in all other cases reported. Electrocoagulation or surgical excision om request for cosmetic reasons seem to be only possible treatments.

Antibodies, Monoclonal