Search results for "VASCULITIS"

Clinical course and symptomatic prediagnostic period of patients with Wegener's granulomatosis and microscopic polyangiitis.

1998

The clinical course of 15 patients with Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) and eight patients with microscopic polyangiitis (MPA) from one nephrological clinical center is presented for the period from 1984 to 1993, when testing for antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) was gradually introduced into routine clinical practice. We found a high degree of prolonged time periods with symptoms attributable to WG or MPA until the specific diagnosis was made. Nine patients with WG and one patient with MPA had symptomatic prediagnostic periods of more than three years, which extended in one case up to twenty years. In these prediagnostic periods, often even severe flares of vasculitic activity res…

Endothelial Dysfunction in Tristetraprolin-deficient Mice Is Not Caused by Enhanced Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Expression

2014

Cardiovascular events are important co-morbidities in patients with chronic inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. Tristetraprolin (TTP) regulates pro-inflammatory processes through mRNA destabilization and therefore TTP-deficient mice (TTP(-/-) mice) develop a chronic inflammation resembling human rheumatoid arthritis. We used this mouse model to evaluate molecular signaling pathways contributing to the enhanced atherosclerotic risk in chronic inflammatory diseases. In the aorta of TTP(-/-) mice we observed elevated mRNA expression of known TTP targets like tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and macrophage inflammatory protein-1α, as well as of other pro-atherosclerotic mediators, l…

Acute renal insufficiency and pancreatitis in a child with atypical Henoch–Schönlein purpura: efficacy of a single dose of cyclophosphamide

2018

A 9-year-old boy with petechiae on the legs and abdominal pain was unsuccessfully treated with steroids. He was admitted to our hospital for the onset of fever, ecchymosis, and arthralgia. Skin lesions suggested vasculitis, but they were not typical of Henoch–Schönlein purpura. He showed ecchymosis of the scrotal bursa, diffusion of petechiae to the trunk and arms, vomiting, severe abdominal pain, oliguria with hyponatremia, hypoalbuminemia, low C3 levels, high levels of creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, and tubular enzymes, proteinuria, and glycosuria. The urinary sediment showed macrohaematuria, and hyaline and cellular casts. Ultrasound showed polyserositis. He was treated with intraveno…

Familial Mediterranean fever as an unusual cause of acute scrotum.

2001

Correct preoperative diagnosis is the crucial step in the management of acute scrotum. With the adjunct of color Doppler ultrasound, torsion of testicular appendages, epidydimitis and orchitis as the more common nonsurgical causes are differentiated reliably from testicular torsion or incarcerated inguinal hernia. Less frequently, acute scrotal swelling is the initial symptom of systemic disorders. Leukemic infiltration of the testis or scrotal involvement in vasculitis

Acute painful paraplegia in a 49-year-old man with allergic asthma.

2014

We present a case of a 49-year-old man, with a 10-year history of bronchial asthma and nasal polyposis, who developed acutely painful paraplegia and paresthesias. Laboratory data showed elevated blood creatine kinase levels and myoglobinuria, which were diagnostic for rhabdomyolysis but only partially explained the neurological deficit. Electrophysiological studies revealed a sensorimotor neuropathy of multiple mononeuritis type. The patient also had leucocytosis with marked eosinophilia and antineutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies. Bronchial biopsies showed inflammatory infiltrates with a prevalence of eosinophils. All these findings led us to diagnose eosinophilic granulomatosis with pol…

Stroke associated with giant cell arteritis: a population-based study

2014

Background Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is the most common vasculitis in people ≥50 years and can be associated with stroke. We aimed to evaluate the epidemiology and characteristics of stroke in patients with GCA. Methods All patients with a biopsy-proven diagnosis of GCA were identified among residents of the city of Dijon, France (152 000 inhabitants), between 2001 and 2012 using a prospective database. Among these, patients who suffered from stroke were retrieved by crossing data from the population-based Dijon Stroke Registry. Demographics and clinical features were recorded. We considered that the stroke was GCA-related if the stroke revealed GCA or occurred between the onset of symptom…

Does Autoimmunity Play a Role in the Immunopathogenesis of Vasculitis Associated With Chronic Chagas Disease?

2021

Chagas disease (CD) is a chronic systemic vector-borne infection caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. It has spread from Latin America through migration, becoming a global issue (Perez-Molina and Molina, 2018). Its prevalence is ∼7 million people worldwide, of whom 30-40% will develop severe chronic complications such as cardiomyopathy or megaviscerae, with a considerable impact on morbimortality (WHO, 2020; WHO, 2021). The parasite is transmitted after metacyclic trypomastigotes in the feces of a triatomine insect enter the host through the bite wound. They penetrate cells and transform into amastigotes, where they multiply by binary fission and differentiate again into circulating t…

A case of endocarditis with vasculitis due to Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans: a 16S rDNA signature for distinction from related organisms.

1998

Neutrophil extracellular traps mediate transfer of cytoplasmic neutrophil antigens to myeloid dendritic cells toward ANCA induction and associated au…

2012

AbstractAntineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCAs) target proteins normally retained within neutrophils, indicating that cell death is involved in the autoimmunity process. Still, ANCA pathogenesis remains obscure. ANCAs activate neutrophils inducing their respiratory burst and a peculiar form of cell death, named NETosis, characterized by formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), decondensed chromatin threads decorated with cytoplasmic proteins endorsed with antimicrobial activity. NETs have been consistently detected in ANCA-associated small-vessel vasculitis, and this association prompted us to test whether the peculiar structure of NET favors neutrophil proteins uploading i…

Meta-Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies in >80 000 Subjects Identifies Multiple Loci for C-Reactive Protein Levels

2011

Background— C-reactive protein (CRP) is a heritable marker of chronic inflammation that is strongly associated with cardiovascular disease. We sought to identify genetic variants that are associated with CRP levels. Methods and Results— We performed a genome-wide association analysis of CRP in 66 185 participants from 15 population-based studies. We sought replication for the genome-wide significant and suggestive loci in a replication panel comprising 16 540 individuals from 10 independent studies. We found 18 genome-wide significant loci, and we provided evidence of replication for 8 of them. Our results confirm 7 previously known loci and introduce 11 novel loci that are implicated in p…