La Revue de médecine interne
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Primary epiploic appendagitis is known to be a rare finding among causes of acute abdomen. Depending on location, it may mimic several disorders such as colonic diverticulitis and acute appendicitis. Diagnosis is sometimes performed during surgery. ⋯ Appendagitis is a rare cause of acute abdominal pain. Outcome is favorable with medical treatment only. Abdominal ultrasound and CT are helpful diagnostic tests avoiding useless surgical procedure.
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Case Reports
[Immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy associated with antibodies to hydroxy-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase].
Statins or 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (HMGCR) are among the most commonly prescribed treatment in France. They may be responsible for muscular intolerance with variable severity. They have been recently involved in the occurrence of an acquired inflammatory myopathy associated with anti-HMGCR antibodies. This new type of toxic myopathy remains poorly known by clinicians. ⋯ Statins may unmask or cause an autoimmune necrotizing myopathy associated with the presence of anti-HMGCR antibodies. Their identification is now routinely available. An immunosuppressive treatment is necessary and justified by the autoimmune nature of the disease.
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Patients suffering from muscular symptoms or with an increase of creatine kinase levels may present a myopathy. In such situations, clinicians have to confirm the existence of a myopathy and determine if it is an acquired or a genetic muscular disease. In the presence of an acquired myopathy after having ruled out an infectious, a toxic agent or an endocrine cause, physicians must identify which type of idiopathic myopathy the patient is presenting: either a myositis including polymyositis, dermatomyositis, and inclusion body myositis, or an immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy. ⋯ Anti-MDA-5 antibody are specifically associated with dermatomyositis, and define a skin-lung syndrome with a frequent severe disease course. Anti-TIF1-γ is also associated with dermatomyositis but its presence is frequently predictive of a cancer association whereas anti-MI2 is associated with the classical dermatomyositis. Two specific antibodies, anti-SRP and anti-HMGCR, are observed in patients with immune-mediated necrotizing myopathies and may be very useful to distinguish acquired myopathies from dystrophic muscular diseases in case of a slow onset and to allow the initiation of effective therapy.
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We present the recent therapeutic advances in the cystic fibrosis care. It concerns improvements in symptomatic treatment with the development of dry powder inhaled antibiotics that improved quality of life, and innovative treatments namely the modulators of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane protein conductance regulator (CFTR), molecules which act specifically at the level of the defective mechanisms implied in the disease. The life expectancy of cystic fibrosis patients born after 2000, is estimated now to be about 50 years. ⋯ We presently have numerous symptomatic treatments for the cystic fibrosis care. The development of CFTR modulators, today available to a restricted number of patients treated with ivacaftor represents a very promising therapeutic avenue. It will represent probably the first step to a personalized treatment according to CFTR genotype.