Artérite de Horton: recommandations Lausannoises de prise en charge [Giant cell arteritis: guidelines of the University Hospital of Lausanne].

Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a subacute/chronic vasculitis and represents the most common form of systemic vasculitis in people over the age of 50 years. The absence of clear and specific diagnostic criteria with the highly variable clinical presentation is a diagnostic challenge requesting a multidisciplinary approach. Yet, GCA is an emergency and the treatment must be initiated very rapidly due to the risk of blindness. This article presents a review of GCA as well as the diagnostic and therapeutic institutional guidelines of the University Hospital of Lausanne.

Giant cell arteritis: A rare cause of posterior vasculitis.

PURPOSE: To report three cases of posterior vasculitis associated with subacute giant cell arteritis (GCA). METHODS: Three patients with decreased vision underwent complete ophthalmologic examination and fluorescein angiography. RESULTS: All patients presented posterior vasculitis. Patient 1 had an erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) of 38 mm/hr and a C-reactive protein (CRP) of 28mg/L. Patient 2 and 3 had an ESR of 104 and 95 mm/hr and a CRP of 42 and 195 mg/L accordingly. Diagnosis was established by temporal artery biopsy. Resolution was observed after systemic prednisolone therapy. CONCLUSION: GCA should be suspected when posterior vasculitis and relatively high ESR and CRP are present.

Surface-to-air signals.

Powerful volatile regulators of gene expression, pheromones and other airborne signals are of great interest in biology. Plants are masters of volatile production and release, not just from flowers and fruits, but also from vegetative tissues. The controlled release of bouquets of volatiles from leaves during attack by herbivores helps plants to deter herbivores or attract their predators, but volatiles have other roles in development and in the control of defence gene expression. Some of these roles may include long-distance signalling within and perhaps between plants.

Extended osteoplastic maxillotomy for total excision of giant multicompartmental juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma.

Juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma (JNA) is a rare vascular neoplasm occurring almost exclusively in adolescent males. Although benign, it is often locally aggressive and can erode into surrounding tissues and structures resulting in significant morbidity and mortality. In 20% of cases, there is intracranial extension. In this paper, we report on the total excision of a large, recurrent JNA with intracranial extension into the middle cranial fossa encroaching into the cavernous sinus, by right temporal craniotomy and extended osteoplastic maxillotomy.

A simple gas chromatography method for the analysis of monoethanolamine in air

A simple method determining airborne monoethanolamine has been developed. Monoethanolamine determination has traditionally been difficult due to analytical separation problems. Even in recent sophisticated methods, this difficulty remains as the major issue often resulting in time-consuming sample preparations. Impregnated glass fiber filters were used for sampling. Desorption of monoethanolamine was followed by capillary GC analysis and nitrogen phosphorous selective detection. Separation was achieved using a specific column for monoethanolamines (35% diphenyl and 65% dimethyl polysiloxane). The internal standard was quinoline. Derivatization steps were not needed. The calibration range was 0.5-80 μg/mL with a good correlation (R(2) = 0.996). Averaged overall precisions and accuracies were 4.8% and -7.8% for intraday (n = 30), and 10.5% and -5.9% for interday (n = 72). Mean recovery from spiked filters was 92.8% for the intraday variation, and 94.1% for the interday variation. Monoethanolamine on stored spiked filters was stable for at least 4 weeks at 5°C. This newly developed method was used among professional cleaners and air concentrations (n = 4) were 0.42 and 0.17 mg/m(3) for personal and 0.23 and 0.43 mg/m(3) for stationary measurements. The monoethanolamine air concentration method described here was simple, sensitive, and convenient both in terms of sampling and analytical analysis.

Reconstruction Of Past Climate Conditions Over Central Europe From Groundwater Data

Here we present a 30 000 years low-resolution climate record reconstructed from groundwater data. The investigated site is located in the Bohemian Cretaceous Basin, in the corridor between the Scandinavian ice sheet and the Alpine ice field. Noble gas temperatures (NGT), obtained from groundwater data, preserved multicentennial temperature variability and indicated a cooling of at least 5-7 °C during the last glacial maximum (LGM). This is further confirmed by the depleted δ18O and δ2H values at the LGM. High excess air (ΔNe) at the end of the Pleistocene is possibly related to abrupt changes in recharge dynamics due to progression and retreat of ice covers and permafrost. These results agree with the fact that during the LGM permafrost and small glaciers developed in the inner valleys of the Giant Mountains (located in the watershed of the aquifers). A temporal decrease of deuterium excess from the pre-industrial Holocene to present days is linked to an increase of the air temperatures, and probably also to an increase of water pressure at the source region of precipitation over the past few hundred years

L'Océan de Münsingen BE : une mosaïque entre l'air et l'eau

Les deux mosaïques bien connues des thermes de la villa de Münsingen ont été récemment restaurées et sont aujourd'hui exposées dans le parc d'une fabrique de la commune bernoise. C'est l'occasion de faire le point sur les fouilles entreprises autour du secteur de la découverte depuis 1941, confirmant ainsi l'existence d'une façade de villa de plus de 100 m, bordée par une aile saillante ou une annexe renfermant une zone thermale. Le frigidarium en est constitué d'une pièce d'accès à médaillon central avec tête d'Océan et d'une salle de bains à abside décorée de poissons et de dauphins. L'analyse des motifs amène à repérer au moins trois mains à l'oeuvre sur les pavements, reflétant les tendances de la seconde moitié du IIe siècle et du début du IIIe siècle apr. J.-C. Le maître d'atelier, sans doute installé à Avenches, s'est occupé d'Océan, centrant son discours sur son abondante chevelure d'où sortent deux monstres marins et deux dauphins, allégorie de l'Univers et de l'Empire romain.

Reduced genetic diversity, increased isolation and multiple introductions of invasive giant hogweed in the western Swiss Alps.

Abstract The giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) has successfully invaded 19 European countries as well as parts of North America. It has become a problematic species due to its ability to displace native flora and to cause public health hazards. Applying population genetics to species invasion can help reconstruct invasion history and may promote more efficient management practice. We thus analysed levels of genetic variation and population genetic structure of H. mantegazzianum in an invaded area of the western Swiss Alps as well as in its native range (the Caucasus), using eight nuclear microsatellite loci together with plastid DNA markers and sequences. On both nuclear and plastid genomes, native populations exhibited significantly higher levels of genetic diversity compared to invasive populations, confirming an important founder event during the invasion process. Invasive populations were also significantly more differentiated than native populations. Bayesian clustering analysis identified five clusters in the native range that corresponded to geographically and ecologically separated groups. In the invaded range, 10 clusters occurred. Unlike native populations, invasive clusters were characterized by a mosaic pattern in the landscape, possibly caused by anthropogenic dispersal of the species via roads and direct collection for ornamental purposes. Lastly, our analyses revealed four main divergent groups in the western Swiss Alps, likely as a consequence of multiple independent establishments of H. mantegazzianum.

Moving to the development of an HIA methodology : the effects of air pollution in Ticino, Switzerland

This chapter describes the profile of the HIA, provides insight into the process and gives an example of how political decisions may be made on behalf of a concerned population through an HIA approach. [Introduction p. 284]

Use of hand-to-hand impedancemetry to predict body composition of African women as measured by air displacement plethysmography.

OBJECTIVES: To test the validity of a simple, rapid, field-adapted, portable hand-held impedancemeter (HHI) for the estimation of lean body mass (LBM) and percentage body fat (%BF) in African women, and to develop specific predictive equations. DESIGN: Cross-sectional observational study. SETTINGS: Dakar, the capital city of Senegal, West Africa. SUBJECTS: A total sample of 146 women volunteered. Their mean age was of 31.0 y (s.d. 9.1), weight 60.9 kg (s.d. 13.1) and BMI 22.6 kg/m(2) (s.d. 4.5). METHODS: Body composition values estimated by HHI were compared to those measured by whole body densitometry performed by air displacement plethysmography (ADP). The specific density of LBM in black subjects was taken into account for the calculation of %BF from body density. RESULTS: : Estimations from HHI showed a large bias (mean difference) of 5.6 kg LBM (P<10(-4)) and -8.8 %BF (P<10(-4)) and errors (s.d. of the bias) of 2.6 kg LBM and 3.7 %BF. In order to correct for the bias, specific predictive equations were developed. With the HHI result as a single predictor, error values were of 1.9 kg LBM and 3.7 %BF in the prediction group (n=100), and of 2.2 kg LBM and 3.6 %BF in the cross-validation group (n=46). Addition of anthropometrical predictors was not necessary. CONCLUSIONS: The HHI analyser significantly overestimated LBM and underestimated %BF in African women. After correction for the bias, the body compartments could easily be estimated in African women by using the HHI result in an appropriate prediction equation with a good precision. It remains to be seen whether a combination of arm and leg impedancemetry in order to take into account lower limbs would further improve the prediction of body composition in Africans.