Internal and emergency medicine
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Review Historical Article
From sadness to stiffness: the spleen's progress.
The spleen is a lymphoid organ that has been poorly studied compared to other solid organs, probably because it has been considered a useless and unnecessary part of the body. For many centuries it has been considered a mysterious organ with uncertain functions. The first descriptions of the spleen date back to ancient ages. ⋯ The study of hyposplenic states, which occur much more commonly than originally thought in many immune-mediated disorders, has rapidly increased after the validation of a simple method for assessing spleen function, namely pitted red cell count. In recent years, spleen morphology, in particular spleen stiffness, has been proposed as a marker of portal hypertension. In this paper, we retrace the fundamental steps of the discovery of the functions of the spleen.
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Behçet's syndrome (BS) is a complex disease that shows important heterogeneity in clinical findings and physiopathology. Its treatment can be problematic as BS manifestations in different organs may respond differently to the same drug. ⋯ Tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors, especially infliximab and adalimumab, are increasingly used for various refractory BS manifestations despite the lack of controlled studies. In this review, we aim to focus on both the traditional and new treatment modalities for BS, with more emphasis on recent data on newer agents.