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We report a retrospective study of 115 hospitalized non-immunocompromised adults with proved or presumed diagnosis of cytomegalovirus infection. Clinical symptoms were fever (95%), constitutive symptoms (80%), joint and muscle pain (41%), shivering (32%), abdominal pain (26%), non-productive cough (20%), cutaneous eruption (20%), and diarrhea (10%). Examination found hepatomegaly (25%), splenomegaly (23%), cutaneous rash (20%), adenopathy (19%), pharyngitis (9%), jaundice (3%) or signs of meningeal irritation (1%). Seventeen patients had a gastrointestinal form (hepatitis, jaundice, colitis, antral gastritis or cholecystitis), eight had a pattern of hemopathy, two interstitial pneumonitis, two pericarditis, two immune thrombocytopenic purpura, two a polymyalgia rheumatica-like pattern, one thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, one cutaneous vasculitis and one meningoencephalitis. Sixty-four percent of the patients had atypical lymphocytosis. Hepatocellular injury occurred in 90% of the patients. Nineteen of the patients had biological immune abnormalities. Cytomegalovirus infection should be mainly suspected in any patient with persistent fever, isolated or associated with signs of poor specificity, or in some patients with visceral manifestations of initially unknown origin.

This review is aimed at defining the frequency, the clinical, biological and radiological presentation and the therapeutic possibilities for AL amyloid arthropathies. The frequency of AL amyloid arthropathy is estimated to be between 2 and 5%. There is usually a bilaterally progressive symmetrical arthritis of multiple joints (predominantly in the upper limb joints) with a chronic evolution. Neurologic or cutaneous symptoms are common. The analysis of synovial fluid sediments is a key test for the diagnosis of amyloid arthropathy. Patients with amyloid arthropathy must be screened for monoclonal gammapathies. The synovectomy is the best symptomatic treatment. A better knowledge of the pathogenesis of amyloid deposits should permit to improve therapeutical strategies.

Protein-losing enteropathy (PLE) is characterized by loss of essentially protein substances into the gastrointestinal tract. Few reports of PLE supervening in patients who have systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have appeared in the literature. We report three new cases. All three were women who had a severe form of SLE involving several organs. PLE was diagnosed on the basis of an increased clearance of alpha 1 antitrypsin. The severeness of the clinical picture in all three patients justified the use of immunosuppressive agents (corticosteroids and pulse cyclophosphamide therapy) which were effective. These cases are compared to the 24 previously reported. The frequency of PLE during an SLE flare-up is probably underestimated. It should be looked for in SLE patients who have edema by means of the simple alpha 1 antitrypsin test. PLE is often found in severe clinical forms of SLE and should be managed using corticosteroids either alone or in association with immunosuppressive drugs.