[Severe hypertension and nephrotic syndrome].
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M Lambert.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Renal infarction can be complicated by arterial hypertension, which is sometimes severe and may present as hypertensive encephalopathy and epilepsy. We report such a case in whom angiographic studies revealed a stenosis of the left renal artery and a post-stenotic aneurysmal dilation, containing a large thrombus with distal embolization. Thrombolysis associated with angioplasty resulted in the disappearance of the thrombus and correction of the stenosis. The pathophysiology of hypertension secondary to renal infarction is discussed. Therapeutic modalities are reviewed.
We report the results of biochemical and molecular investigations on a group of patients from the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec who have an unusual form of cytochrome oxidase deficiency and Leigh disease. This group can be distinguished from the classical presentation of cytochrome oxidase deficiency with Leigh disease, by the severity of the biochemical defect in different tissues. The activity in skin fibroblasts, amniocytes, and skeletal muscle of cytochrome oxidase is 50% of normal, while in kidney and heart it is close to normal values. Brain and liver, on the other hand, have very low activities. The defect in activity appears to result from a failure of assembly of the cytochrome oxidase complex in liver, but levels of mRNA for both mitochondrially encoded and nuclear-encoded subunits in liver and skin fibroblasts were found to be the same as those in controls. The cDNA sequence of the liver-specific cytochrome oxidase subunits VIa and VIIa were determined in samples from patient liver and skin fibroblasts and showed normal coding sequence.
Thirty-four children with lactic acidosis and Leigh encephalopathy due to cytochrome C oxidase (COX) deficiency distributed in 28 families have recently been identified in northeastern Quebec, particularly in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean (SLSJ) region. The segregation analysis was consistent with an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. The incidence was estimated at 1/2,063 live births between 1979 and 1990, and the carrier rate was estimated at 1/23 inhabitants in SLSJ. In SLSJ, the places of origin of the COX-deficient children and their parents did not show a clustered nonuniform distribution. The genealogical reconstruction of 54 obligate carriers identified 26 ancestors common to all of them. Twenty-two were 17th-century Europeans, suggesting that the COX-deficient gene was introduced in the French-Canadian population by early settlers. These results support the hypothesis of a founder effect for COX deficiency in northeastern Quebec. Clinical findings are reported for 15 of these COX-deficient patients, age 6 mo to 11 years. Moderate developmental delay, hypotonia, ataxia, strabismus, and mild facial dysmorphism were frequent. Eleven children died in episodes of fulminant metabolic acidosis. The patients had elevated blood and cerebrospinal fluid lactate levels, decreased blood bicarbonate levels, and normal blood pH. Leigh disease and microvesicular steatosis of the liver were present in all affected patients for whom postmortem examination was performed. This biochemically uniform group of patients showed a wide range of clinical severity.
Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) deficiency, an autosomal recessive disorder causing chylomicronemia, has a high prevalence in the French-Canadian population of Quebec. The molecular basis of LPL deficiency has been defined, and two major mutations have been shown to have an uneven geographic distribution. Two mutations, one at residue 188 (M-188) and the other at residue 207 (M-207), are described here; they account for 95% of the mutant alleles. The carrier rate of M-188 was highest in western Quebec (1/326) but that of M-207 was much higher in the eastern part of the province (1/85). Genealogical reconstruction has revealed that both mutations were introduced to the French-Canadian population by migrants from France in the seventeenth century. M-188 is likely to have a Scottish ancestor, whereas M-207 appears to be of French origin.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The muscle-specific promoter of the dystrophin gene is active in skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscles and is specifically stimulated during differentiation of myoblasts into multinucleated myotubes. An 850-base pair (bp) DNA fragment upstream from the cap site is able to confer a partial muscle specificity to a reporter gene. The region between -850 and -140 bp includes nonspecific negative and positive regulatory sequences. A continuous stretch of 140 bp upstream from the cap site exhibits a striking conservation between rodents and human (93% homology) and still retains muscle preference of expression. It contains two putative binding sites for factors involved in regulation of other muscle-specific genes, a CCArGG box and an E box. This latter element, however, is unable to confer the ability to be transactivated by MyoD1 to the dystrophin promoter. The -140-bp promoter fragment exhibits antagonist effects contributed by one inhibiting sequence (nucleotide -140/-96), active in all cell types, and one activating region, from nucleotide -96 to the cap site, sufficient to confer a muscle preference of expression, in which the CCArGG box seems to play a major role.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The osteoarticular affinity of Streptococcus milleri has only recently been recognized. We report a case of septic prepatellar bursitis caused by this pathogen. The recent literature concerning osteoarticular involvement by S. milleri is reviewed.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Previously, we and others have shown that MHC class-II deficient humans have greatly reduced numbers of CD4+CD8- peripheral T cells. These type-III Bare Lymphocyte Syndrome patients lack MHC class-II and have an impaired MHC class-I antigen expression. In this study, we analyzed the impact of the MHC class-II deficient environment on the TCR V-gene segment usage in this reduced CD4+CD8- T-cell subset. For these studies, we employed TcR V-region-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and a semiquantitative PCR technique with V alpha and V beta amplimers, specific for each of the most known V alpha- and V beta-gene region families. The results of our studies demonstrate that some of the V alpha-gene segments are used less frequent in the CD4+CD8- T-cell subset of the patient, whereas the majority of the TCR V alpha- and V beta-gene segments investigated were used with similar frequencies in both subsets in the type-III Bare Lymphocyte Syndrome patient compared to healthy control family members. Interestingly, the frequency of TcR V alpha 12 transcripts was greatly diminished in the patient, both in the CD4+CD8- as well as in the CD4-CD8+ compartment, whereas this gene segment could easily be detected in the healthy family controls. On the basis of the results obtained in this study, it is concluded that within the reduced CD4+CD8- T-cell subset of this patient, most of the TCR V-gene segments tested for are employed. However, a skewing in the usage frequency of some of the V alpha-gene segments toward the CD4-CD8+ T-cell subset was noticeable in the MHC class-II deficient patient that differed from those observed in the healthy family controls.
Type 1 hereditary tyrosinemia (HT1) is a metabolic disorder caused by a deficiency of fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase (FAH). Using a full-length FAH cDNA and specific antibodies, we investigated liver specimens from seven unrelated HT1 patients (six of French Canadian and one of Scandinavian origin). The expression of FAH in livers of these individuals was analyzed at several molecular levels including mRNA, immunoreactive material (IRM), and enzymatic activity. Four phenotypic variants were differentiated by these assays: (i) presence of FAH mRNA without any IRM or enzymatic activity, (ii) decreased FAH mRNA, IRM, and enzymatic activity, (iii) moderately decreased FAH mRNA and IRM with severely reduced enzymatic activity, and (iv) undetectable FAH mRNA, IRM, and enzymatic activity. These various molecular phenotypes suggest that this disorder may be caused by a variety of FAH mutations. Interestingly, we found no apparent relationship between the clinical and the molecular phenotypes, except that patients with absent IRM and enzymatic activity tend to have higher levels of serum alpha-fetoprotein and an earlier clinical onset. To further analyze the molecular basis of HT1, the FAH cDNA of a patient designated as variant A was amplified and sequenced. An A-to-T transversion, which substitutes asparagine16 with isoleucine (N16I), was identified. This patient was heterozygous as shown by direct sequencing of the amplified region and hybridization with allele-specific oligonucleotide probes. The N16I allele originates from the father and the second allele appears not to be expressed in the liver of the proband. CV-1 cells transfected with the mutant cDNA produced FAH mRNA, but no protein or hydrolytic activity, as predicted by the "A" phenotype of the patient. This is the first demonstration of heterogeneity in the expression of FAH at the levels of protein, mRNA, and enzymatic activity in the livers of HT1 patients and is the first identification of a causal mutationin this disease.
The presence of circulating antithyroid antibodies in a small number of patients with Alport's syndrome has led some to suggest that the two abnormalities are associated. If confirmed, such an association could have important diagnostic as well as pathophysiological implications. Using sensitive methods, we assessed the prevalence of antithyroid antibodies in 40 patients with Alport's syndrome from 28 families. Antithyroglobulin antibodies were absent in all patients. Antimicrosomal and antithyroperoxidase antibodies were absent in all but one patient. Three patients with Alport's syndrome from the latter family were negative for antithyroid antibodies. In this large number of patients we found no association between Alport's syndrome and antithyroid antibodies. Screening for the presence of such antibodies in patients with Alport's syndrome is thus not warranted. The previously reported coexistence of the two disorders might be fortuitous.
We report 2 cases of hypothyroidism in whom the associated haematological disturbances (macrocytic anaemia in both cases, mild leukopenia and thrombopenia in one patient) failed to be corrected by thyroid hormone replacement therapy. Further investigations led to the diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) in the first patient and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) in the other. The reasons of the delayed diagnosis and the possible mechanisms explaining this rare combination are discussed. The hypothesis of a purely coincidental association seems most likely.
The authors describe an unusual case of hydatid cyst inserted in the inferior vena cava and extending into the right atrium. The transoesoesophageal echocardiographic appearances were similar to those of a thrombus: the tumour was very mobile, echogenic, polylobular with a cord-like pedicle in the inferior vena cava. The pathological examination revealed a ruptured hydatid cyst. The mass and its insertion were not visible on CT scan or cavography. Transoesophageal echocardiography would therefore seem to be a very useful diagnostic method for tumours arising in the inferior vena cava and extending into the right atrium.
A case of acute renal failure occurring during treatment with carbamazepine is reported. The clinical signs and biological abnormalities strongly supported the diagnosis of acute interstitial nephritis of immunoallergic origin. The outcome was favourable after drug withdrawal. We review the cases of carbamazepine-induced acute renal failure.