•No guidelines available for treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria before immunosuppression in MS.•A survey of clinical practice in case of ASB before immunosuppression was performed in France.•A ...great variability in Diagnostic and therapeutic procedures was found.•There is no consensus among MS neurologists to detect and treat ASB before Immunosuppression.
Background: In multiple sclerosis (MS), case control studies have shown that anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL Ab) are more frequent than in the general population and that aCL Ab positivity may be ...associated with specific clinical characteristics. Objectives: To determine whether patients with MS who are positive for aCL Ab have specific characteristics. Methods: 285 consecutive patients with MS were tested for aCL Ab positivity. Patients also underwent complete autoimmune screening and were systematically evaluated for clinical characteristics and individual or family history of autoimmune disease. Results: aCL Ab positivity was found in 42 patients (15%). The main isotype was aCL IgM (32 patients, 11%). Demographics and clinical characteristics including sex, age at onset, course of the disease, expanded disability status scale score, and progression index were not different between aCL Ab positive and aCL Ab negative patients. Clinical systems involved at onset or during the course of the disease were not different from what is usually observed in MS. aCL Ab positivity was not associated with an increased frequency of autoimmune disease and was not predictive of a family history of autoimmune disease. Patients positive for aCL IgM were more frequently positive for the presence of non-organ specific antibodies (53% v 39%, respectively, p = 0.02). Conclusions: These results do not support the hypothesis that patients with MS with aCL Ab constitute a subgroup of MS according to demographic clinical and familial characteristics. The greater frequency of other antibodies in aCL Ab positive patients suggests that they only reflect a more general autoimmune activation in MS.
The presence of anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL) is a recognized risk factor for ischaemic stroke and a predictor of recurrent ischaemic events in young patients, but the significance of positive aCL ...tests is uncertain in the elderly. We evaluated the frequency of aCL and the risk of recurrence of stroke and other vascular events in a series of 242 consecutive patients aged over 60 years, admitted for brain infarction. All underwent aCL immunoreactivity (ELISA; measured by IgG antiphospholipid, GPL, units) and transoesophageal echocardiography and were later examined or contacted by telephone (mean 2.33 +/- 1.25 years, max. 4). Fifty patients (21 %) had at least l0 GPL units aCL. There were no differences between these and the other patients in the results of transoesophageal echocardiography, including mitral or aortic valvular thickening, atrial thrombus, atrial spontaneous contrast, strands, and aortic plaques thickness. None had IgG higher than 80 GPL units or was positive for anti-beta2 glycoprotein I. Patients with at least 10 GPL units more often had a past history of cerebral infarction than patients lower aCL level. However, the incidence of recurrent stroke was 4.5 per 100 person-year in patients with more than 10 GPL units, and 2.7 per 100 person-year in those with more than 10 GPL units. Kaplan-Meier analysis for any vascular events showed no differences between the two groups. In contrast to young patients, elderly patients with 10 or more GPL units aCL and negative for anti-beta2 glycoprotein I do not seem to have a higher risk of vascular events.
Three patients are described who developed a severe neuropathy after chemotherapy with high dosecis-diamine-(1,1-cyclobutane dicarboxylato) platinum (carboplatin). This toxic side effect, which is ...unusual at conventional doses, might become more frequent as increasing doses are administered to overcome drug resistance in cancer treatment, and might limit its use at very high doses before haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Few data exist on a possible benign form of neuromyelitis optica (NMO).
To identify NMO with a good outcome (go-NMO) among a large population of patients and to describe demographic and clinical ...variables associated with go-NMO vs standard NMO and benign multiple sclerosis.
Observational retrospective multicenter study.
Twenty-five medical centers in metropolitan France (MF) and 3 medical centers in the French West Indies (FWI).
A total of 175 patients with NMO were retrospectively analyzed from 2 cohorts: 125 in MF and 50 patients of nonwhite race/ethnicity in the FWI. Patients in MF fulfilled the 2006 NMO criteria, whereas patients in the FWI fulfilled the 1999 or 2006 NMO criteria. Neuromyelitis optica and multiple sclerosis databases were reviewed, and patients with a score of 3 or lower on the Expanded Disability Status Scale after a 10-year follow-up period were considered to have go-NMO.
Clinical, laboratory, and magnetic resonance imaging data and course of disability.
In MF, go-NMO was observed in 11 patients, including 3 untreated patients. In the FWI, NMO was severe because of disability related to optic neuritis. Compared with standard NMO, go-NMO was associated with a lower annualized relapse rate (0.3 vs 1.0, P < .01), and 8 of 11 patients with go-NMO showed complete regression of myelitis on magnetic resonance imaging during the disease course. Three patients experienced a disabling attack of NMO after 15 years of follow-up. A good outcome occurred less frequently among patients with NMO than among patients with multiple sclerosis (12.0% vs 22.4%, P = .03).
Among patients in MF, go-NMO occurs rarely. However, because a disabling attack may occur after a long follow-up period, a benign form of NMO cannot be defined.
Autosomal dominant familial spastic paraplegia (AD-FSP) is a degenerative disorder of the central motor system characterised by progressive spasticity of the lower limbs. AD-FSP has been divided into ...pure and complicated forms. Pure AD-FSP is genetically heterogeneous; three loci have been mapped to chromosomes 14q (SPG3), 2p (SPG4), and 15q (SPG6), whereas no loci responsible for complicated forms have been identified to date. Here we report linkage to the SPG4 locus in a three generation family with AD-FSP complicated by dementia and epilepsy. Assuming that both forms of AD-FSP are caused by mutations involving the same FSP gene, analysis of recombination events in this family positions the SPG4 gene within a 0 cM interval flanked by loci D2S2255 and D2S2347.
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