[Long-term development of chronic pancreatitis (113 cases). I. Study of spontaneous development].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L Descos.
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In this preliminary work, the first results concerning the cytodiagnostic of pancreatic diseases by needle aspiration are reported. 37 aspirations were carried out on 30 patients. 16 during the operation and 21 by transcutaneous way using arteriography in 16 cases, ultrasonic scanning in 3 cases, tomodensitometry in 2 cases, as a guide. In 7 patients, both way were used. Cancer of the pancreas was diagnosed by this technique in 10 cases out of 14, without accident. No results were falsely positive. Skill and good technique would seem to allow to decide between pancreatitis and cancer in doubtful cases and diagnose cancer of the pancreas sufficiently early.
The prevention of relapse in quiescent Crohn's disease remains a major therapeutic challenge. The present study is a double blind placebo (P)-controlled, randomized, multicentre cooperative trial designed to test the effectiveness of levamisole (L) in the prophylaxis against flare up in patients with quiescent Crohn's disease. The trial included 2 successive phases: a) phase I:167 patients with inactive disease (but who had not had previous resection of all diseased tissue) were randomly and double blindly assigned to receive either L (150 mg orally once weekly) or P; patients were randomized in 2 strata: those having experienced a recent flare up (within the 3 months preceding their entry into the trial: red strata) versus others (blue strata). Patients were followed up at 3 monthly intervals during 2 years. Initially there was no significant difference between L and P groups as regard to age, sex ratio, duration of disease at the time of randomization, incidence of prior intestinal resection, Crohn's disease topography, clinical activity; biological activity was slightly but significantly higher (P less than 0.05) in the P group. Twelve patients were withdrawn from analysis (lost to follow-up: 2; inadequate respect of the protocol: 10), leaving 155 patients (78 L, 77 P) who completed the study. L did not significantly influence any of the following parameters: incidence of attacks (L: 37 p. 100; P: 35 p. 100), lag time between the entry into the trial and the occurrence of the attack (L: 32.7 +/- 5.2; P: 41.8 +/- 5.8; m +/- SEM; weeks), curves of maintenance in remission (Kaplan-Meier method), outcome rank, severity of attacks. Attempts to analyse separately certain subgroups--subjects with purely colonic (+/- anal) disease, subjects with small bowel localization (+/- anus), patients of the red or blue strata--did not show any statistical difference between L and P. Thirteen patients left the trial for minor intolerance (10 L, 3 P). b) Phase II lasted one further year and involved the patients still in remission and in the trial at the end of phase I (n = 57). Those who had received L during phase I were randomized between continuance of L (L leads to L) vs. a change to P (L leads to P); those who had been on P during phase I were randomized between continuance of P vs. a switch to L.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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In two patients with non-specific lesions of oesophagitis, malpighian cells infected with type I herpes simplex virus were collected by brush cytology. The cytological appearance was typical of herpes infection. Within a specimen comprising many highly necrotic areas, giant multi-nucleated malpighian cells were seen, with marginate nuclear chromatin and characteristic inclusion bodies in the nuclei. The discovery of herpes lesions in the oesophagus raises important disease questions, both from the point of view of opportunistic infection and the development of cancer.
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There is a body of clinical, epidemiological, biologic, histological and therapeutic data suggesting that type I hypersensitivity plays a role in the pathogenesis and maintenance of ulcerative colitis. Contradictory evidence from different studies on the pathogenic mechanisms may simply mean that there is not one but several types of ulcerative colitis. Chronic inflammation of the intestine would cover a heterogeneous group of conditions. Genetic susceptibility controlling one of more anomalies of the immune system would be triggered by external factors such as respiratory or food allergies, viral or bacterial infections or other factors including smoking or stress. The wide range of factors involved would explain the variety of findings reported by different groups searching for a single pathogenic mechanism. Finally, as emphasized by other authors, screening for subgroups of patients with allergy among the ulcerative colitis population would be useful in adapting treatment and developing a more specific therapeutic strategy not only for acute phases but perhaps also for preventive treatment.