Destructive arthritis in a patient with chikungunya virus infection with persistent specific IgM antibodies

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chikungunya fever is an emerging arboviral disease characterized by an algo-eruptive syndrome, inflammatory polyarthralgias, or tenosynovitis that can last for months to years. Up to now, the pathophysiology of the chronic stage is poorly understood.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report the first case of CHIKV infection with chronic associated rheumatism in a patient who developed progressive erosive arthritis with expression of inflammatory mediators and persistence of specific IgM antibodies over 24 months following infection.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Understanding the specific features of chikungunya virus as well as how the virus interacts with its host are essential for the prevention, treatment or cure of chikungunya disease.</p

Molecular Blocking of CD23 Supports Its Role in the Pathogenesis of Arthritis

BACKGROUND: CD23 is a differentiation/activation antigen expressed by a variety of hematopoietic and epithelial cells. It can also be detected in soluble forms in biological fluids. Initially known as the low-affinity receptor for immunoglobulin E (Fc epsilonRII), CD23 displays various other physiologic ligands such as CD21, CD11b/c, CD47-vitronectin, and mannose-containing proteins. CD23 mediates numerous immune responses by enhancing IgE-specific antigen presentation, regulating IgE synthesis, influencing cell differentiation and growth of both B- and T-cells. CD23-crosslinking promotes the secretion of pro-inflammatory mediators from human monocytes/macrophages, eosinophils and epithelial cells. Increased CD23 expression is found in patients during allergic reactions and rheumatoid arthritis while its physiopathologic role in these diseases remains to be clarified. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We previously generated heptapeptidic countrestructures of human CD23. Based on in vitro studies on healthy and arthritic patients' cells, we showed that CD23-specific peptide addition to human macrophages greatly diminished the transcription of genes encoding inflammatory cytokines. This was also confirmed by significant reduction of mediator levels in cell supernatants. We also show that CD23 peptide decreased IgE-mediated activation of both human and rat CD23(+) macrophages. In vivo studies in rat model of arthritis showed that CD23-blocking peptide ameliorates clinical scores and prevent bone destruction in a dose dependent manner. Ex-vivo analysis of rat macrophages further confirmed the inhibitory effect of peptides on their activation. Taken together our results support the role of CD23 activation and subsequent inflammatory response in arthritis. CONCLUSION: CD23-blocking peptide (p30A) prevents the activation of monocytes/macrophages without cell toxicity. Thus, targeting CD23 by antagonistic peptide decreases inflammatory markers and may have clinical value in the treatment of human arthritis and allergic reactions involving CD23

Effects of radiotherapy and surgery in early breast cancer: an overview of the randomized trials

Background Randomized trials of radiotherapy and surgery for early breast cancer may have been too small to detect differences in long-term survival and recurrence reliably. We therefore performed a systematic overview (meta-analysis) of the results of such trials. Methods Information was sought on each subject from investigators who conducted trials that began before 1985 and that compared local therapies for early breast cancer. Data on mortality were available from 36 trials comparing radiotherapy plus surgery with the same type of surgery alone, 10 comparing more-extensive surgery with less-extensive surgery, and 18 comparing more-extensive surgery with less-extensive surgery plus radiotherapy. Information on mortality was available for 28,405 women (97.4 percent of the 29,175 women in the trials). Results The addition of radiotherapy to surgery resulted in a rate of local recurrence that was three times lower than the rate with surgery alone, but there was no significant difference in 10-year survival; among a total of 17,273 women enrolled in such trials, mortality was 40.3 percent with radiotherapy and 41.4 percent without radiotherapy (P = 0.3). Radiotherapy was associated with a reduced risk of death due to breast cancer (odds ratio, 0.94; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.88 to 1.00; P = 0.03), which indicates that, after 10 years, there would be about 0 to 5 fewer deaths due to breast cancer per 100 women. However, there was an increased risk of death from other causes (odds ratio, 1.24; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.09 to 1.42; P = 0.002). This, together with the age-specific death rates, implies, after 10 years, a few extra deaths not due to breast cancer per 100 older women or per 1000 younger women. During the first decade or two after diagnosis, the excess in the rate of such deaths that was associated with radiotherapy was much greater among women who were over 60 years of age at randomization (15.3 percent vs. 11.1 percent [339 vs. 249 deaths]) than among those under 50 (2.5 percent vs. 2.0 percent [62 vs. 49 deaths]). Breast-conserving surgery involved some risk of recurrence in the remaining tissue, but no significant differences in overall survival at 10 years were found in the studies of mastectomy versus breast-conserving surgery plus radiotherapy (4891 women), more-extensive surgery versus less-extensive surgery (4818 women), or axillary clearance versus radiotherapy as adjuncts to mastectomy (4370 women). Conclusions Some of the local therapies for breast cancer had substantially different effects on the rates of local recurrence — such as the reduced recurrence with the addition of radiotherapy to surgery — but there were no definite differences in overall survival at 10 years

Current Evaluation of Lymphoedema and Assessment by Lymphoscintigraphy of the Effect of a Micronized Flavonoid Fraction (Daflon 500 mg) in the Treatment of Upper Limb Lymphoedema

Objective: To assess the effect of Daflon 500 mg on upper lymphoedema occurring after conventional treatment of breast cancer. Design: Open, pilot, single centre trial. Setting: Hospital outpatients attending a University Hospital. Patients: Ten female patients (aged 44–64 years) whose previous treatment for breast cancer was followed by upper limb lymphoedema (mean (SD) time delay = 17±7 months). Interventions: Oral administration of a daily dose of two tablets of Daflon 500 mg for 6 months. Main outcome measures: Symptoms, affected upper limb volume and parameters of radionuclide lymphoscintigraphy using technetium-99m. Results: All patients experienced improvement of symptoms and limb volume (mean volume decrease of the swollen limb: 6.80%). Functional parameters assessed with scintigraphy were significantly improved (half-life: 147.4 (14.9) to 144.1 (14.9) min, p &lt; 0.01; clearance of the colloid: 25.9 (2.5) to 28.3 (2.8) &lt;l/min, p &lt; 0.05; lymphatic speed of the colloid: 7.7 (0.3) to 8.0 (0.2) cm/min, p &lt; 0.05). Conclusion: These preliminary results suggest that this therapy is effective for the treatment of lymphoedema. </jats:sec

Etude experimentale de la dispersion aerienne de particules biotiques en conditions controlees

National audienc

Caractéristiques aérodynamiques de la dispersion aérienne des particules biotiques

National audienc

Characterisation of the interaction between a boundary layer and a cavity using Digital Particle Velocimetry with Optical Flow

An Optical Flow technique based on the use of Dynamic Programming has been applied to Particle Image Velocimetry yielding a significant increase in the accuracy and spatial resolution of the velocity field. Results are presented for an interaction between a laminar boundary layer and a cavity. The experimental characterisation of the interaction between a boundary layer and a cavity was developed in order to valid a three dimensional computation code based on the L.E.S. method (Large Eddies Simulation). The main application of this work is the study of the pollutant transport and dispersion in a canyon street. INTRODUCTION The aim of this investigation is to explore the possibility of using an optical flow technique in measuring fluid flow velocity. Classical flow visualisation is based on direct observation of tracer particles. Analysis of subsequent images searching for local displacements allows quantitative measurement of twodimensional flow fields. The optical flow method offer..

Laboratory study of fungal spore movement using Laser Doppler Velocimetry

International audienc

Simple and Accurate PIV Camera Calibration using a Single Target Image and Camera Focal Length.

International audienceWe propose a method for the accurate recovery of the parameters of a PIV camera using a single image of a plane target as well as the camera focal length and the sensor horizontal and vertical pixel pitches. After the target marks have been located, an optimal projective transform is searchedfor by a least square method between the target plane coordinates and the image plane coordinates. Using only the camera focal length and sensor pixel pitches as additional information, a complete pinhole camera model is recovered via a canonical decomposition of the linear part of the projective transform and an iterative search for the location where the optical axis intersects the image plane. The method has been evaluated with real images: for 25-mm focal length cameras located at 377 mm of the target origin and with an angle of 12 degrees with it, the locations of the optical center were found with a 2 mm accuracy and the mark location reconstruction RMS error was below 0.5 pixels. The method has also been evaluated with the synthetic images available from the Visualization Society of Japan and it was observed that there was no significant decrease in the quality of the flow field evaluation when the recovered camera model was substituted to the exact one even though the optical pathway includes an air to water refraction index change that theoretically makes the pinhole model inappropriate