Bone scintigraphy was performed in a healthy 30-year-old man because of post-traumatic heel pain. The scintigraphy displayed a bilateral increased uptake of 99mTc-MDP in the pectoral muscles and triceps brachii. Further extensive investigations including muscle biopsy were normal and excluded diagnoses such as polymyositis, myositis ossificans or amyloidosis. The abnormalities were in fact explained by physical exercise performed a few hours prior to the radionuclide scan. This was confirmed by the absence of these changes on a second bone scan performed 3 months later. This case shows that muscle exercise should be kept in mind as a cause of skeletal muscle uptake of bone-seeking agents, with the view to avoid unnecessary investigations.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Pseudo Felty's syndrome. A polyclonal disease with a favorable prognosis. Report of two cases with Southern blot analysis of TCR.

The authors report two patients with large granular lymphocyte (LGL) expansion associated with rheumatoid arthritis corresponding to pseudo Felty's syndrome. These cells have natural killer and T cell surface antigen markers. LGL are a heterogeneous population and expansion of these cells is responsible for leukemia, which is generally a monoclonal proliferation. It has been suggested that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a putative agent in this leukemia. No EBV DNA was found with a polymerase chain reaction analysis in the lymphocyte DNA of our two patients. Some cases of pseudo Felty's syndrome have exhibited a monoclonal pattern on Southern blot analysis of the T cell receptor. On the contrary, our two cases showed a polyclonal pattern with TCR beta chain Southern blot analysis. This fact, associated with the mild course seen in both over more than twenty years, suggest that pseudo Felty's syndrome is a disease with a good prognosis.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

[Post-traumatic psoriatic arthritis. 2 cases].

Physical trauma is generally accepted as a possible factor in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis. In the last ten years, there have been a few rare case reports of physical trauma precipitating psoriasic arthritis. We observed two such cases following an occupational accident discovered one and a half year and two and a half year after onset of the first clinical manifestations. In the first case, a 43-year-old man had a fracture of the right calcaneus in March 1991. He was treated with nailing and also required emergency surgery of the posterior tibial artery. The tibiotarsal joint was normal radiologically. Pain persisted after treatment and in 1993 he presented with psoriasis of the scalp and several other localizations together with Hallopeau's acrodermatitis continua of the ankle, pathognomonic for psoriasic arthritis. Salazosufapyridin was given. The second case was a 50-year-old man who had major pain in both wrists immediately after falling on the palm of his hands in 1992. Bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome developed which did not respond well to surgery. In 1993, he developed inflammatory synovitis and also had psoriasis mainly located at the elbows. Immunological tests were negative. Cortisone and salazosulfapyridin were not particularly effective and the patient later developed arthritis of the hip and ankle joints. Physicians should be aware of physical trauma as a causative factor in psoriasic arthritis due to the potential legal implications. Criteria for imputability are: single major physical trauma, absence of clinical signs prior to the trauma, continuous clinical course, first signs occurring then predominating at the joint exposed to trauma. The pathophysiology of this type of arthritis is not well understood. Deep Koebner's phenomena could be involved. Activation of substance P has also been hypothesized.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Bone insufficiency fractures as an inaugural manifestation of primary hyperparathyroidism.

Primary hyperparathyroidism causes excessive bone resorption with a decrease in bone mineral density. Fractures of the vertebras and appendicular bones, however, seem uncommon, even in the long term. We report three patients who presented with bone insufficiency fractures as the inaugural symptom of primary hyperparathyroidism. The three patients were women, aged 62, 65 and 86 years, respectively, who presented with fractures of the medial tibial plateau, femoral neck of femoral neck and tarsus. Laboratory tests showed hypercalcemia, hypophosphatemia and elevated parathyroid hormone levels. Apart from confusion in the 86-year-old patient, there were no clinical manifestations. A bone biopsy obtained in one patient showed increased resorption parameters with no loss of bone trabecular volume; the two other patients underwent absorptiometry, which disclosed a marked decrease in bone mineral density at the spine and femoral neck. There were no risk factors for osteopenia apart from advanced age and female gender. A parathyroid adenoma was removed surgically in all three cases. Vitamin D deficiency was a concomitant abnormality that probably exacerbated the adverse effects of hyperparathyroidism on the skeleton.

Absorptiometry, Photon↗