Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0033774 (pruritus)
 14,546 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A case of multicentric reticulohistiocytosis in a 53-year-old woman with a history of generalized cutaneous eruptions followed by arthralgia is presented. A thorough malignancy screen was performed with negative results. Treatment was commenced with oral prednisone 20 mg daily, which rapidly resulted in marked improvement of joint symptoms and resolution of self-perceived functional disability. As there was little improvement of her rash, oral azathioprine was added at 100 mg daily. Both drugs were well-tolerated and the patient was discharged from hospital on these medications. Two months later the azathioprine was reduced to 50 mg per day orally, following a small rise in hepatic transaminases. Within 4 months there had been dramatic improvement in the rash and cutaneous nodules with complete remission of the arthralgia and pruritus. During this time the oral prednisone had gradually been decreased to 10 mg daily. To date only the periungual nodules persist.
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PMID:Multicentric reticulohistiocytosis presenting with a rash and arthralgia. 1198 72

In numerous studies of symptoms in patients with chronic hepatitis C there has been no systematic assessment of both fatigue and extrahepatic manifestations. Our objective was to assess the prevalence of fatigue in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, and to identify associations between fatigue and clinical and biological hepatic and extrahepatic manifestations. We studied 1614 patients. Data were prospectively recorded during the first visit of patients infected with HCV and the prevalence of fatigue and its association with dermatological, rheumatological, neurological and nephrological manifestations; diabetes; arterial hypertension; auto-antibodies, and cryoglobulinaemia were assessed. Then, using multivariate analysis, we identified demographic, biochemical, immunological, virological, and histological factors associated with the presence of fatigue. Fatigue was present in 53% of patients (95% confidence interval 51-56). In 17% of patients (95% confidence interval 15-19) fatigue was severe, impairing activity. Five other extrahepatic manifestations had a prevalence above 10% including, in decreasing order: arthralgia, paresthesia, myalgia, pruritus, and sicca syndrome. In univariate and multivariate analyses, fatigue, in comparison with the absence of fatigue, was associated with female gender, age over 50 years, cirrhosis, depression and purpura. Independent of these associations, fatigue was associated with arthralgia, myalgia, paresthesia, sicca syndrome and pruritus. The prevalence of fibromyalgia (as defined by the association of fatigue with arthralgia or myalgia) was 19% (95% confidence interval 17-21). There was no significant association between fatigue and the following characteristics: viral load or genotype, alcohol consumption, abnormal thyroid function, and type and level of cryoglobulinaemia. Hence, fatigue is the most frequent extrahepatic manifestation in patients infected with HCV. Fatigue is independently associated with female gender, age over 50 years, cirrhosis, depression and purpura.
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PMID:Fatigue in patients with chronic hepatitis C. 1208 7

Primary hyperparathyroidism is commonly associated with uniglandular swelling, and thus the lesion has been localized before surgical reduction. Since March 1997, we have performed uniglandular parathyroidectomy under local anesthesia with combined scintigram and ultrasound tomography in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism preoperatively identified for uniglandular swelling. We had seen consecutive 18 patients with primary hyperparathyroidism until April 2001; 15 of those underwent surgical reduction. Postoperative intact PTH value was normalized in 14 patients. The remaining patient, diagnosed with thyroid adenoma, required re-surgery due to proved intake on scintigram a year later. Mean follow-up period is 33 months, and the disease does not relapse. In addition, we removed the swollen gland in two patients with renal hyperparathyroidism under local anesthesia; the disease involved two glands in a patient and one gland in another patient. After surgery, their subjective symptoms including itching and arthralgia were eliminated, and did not relapse at 30 and 14 months, respectively. Minimally invasive parathyroidectomy under local anesthesia might be performed as a same-day surgery, and improve QOL of patients.
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PMID:Minimally invasive parathyroidectomy under local anesthesia. 1248 47

A 40-year-old woman with a history of fever and arthralgia since age 17 had received long-term prednisolone (PSL) therapy. She was diagnosed with Takayasu's arteritis in 1980 and given PSL. The symptoms were well controlled until she developed itching in 1998. Laboratory tests showed elevated levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase, total cholesterol, and immunoglobulin M (IgM). She tested positive for anti-mitochondria antibody and for both IgG and IgM anti-pyruvate dehydrogenases. Liver biopsy findings were typical of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). Our patient's clinical course suggested that an adequate amount of PSL to control Takayasu's arteritis does not necessarily prevent the development of PBC.
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PMID:A patient with Takayasu's arteritis treated with corticosteroids who developed primary biliary cirrhosis. 1279 18

A 45-year-old man from the Netherlands who travelled a lot and who had visited Cameroon, amongst other places, presented a few months after his trip with transient unilateral swellings (so-called Calabar swellings), located on his forearms, hands, fingers and feet, and which were accompanied by pruritus, pain, signs of scratching, arthralgia, general fatigue and evident eosinophilia. The differential diagnosis included strongyloidiasis, schistosomiasis, filariasis (in particular loiasis) and hypereosinophilia syndrome. Loiasis was diagnosed by means of positive IgG4 serology against Loa loa. The patient was treated with albendazole and remained free of swellings after treatment.
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PMID:[A patient with loiasis following a trip to Central Africa]. 1286 63

Although secondary hyperparathyroidism is improved by pharmacological therapy; 10-30% of patients with chronic renal failure undergo parathyroidectomy. The authors report on their experience with 66 cases of secondary hyperparathyroidism surgically treated over the period from January 1991 to December 2002. The surgical indications included: persistent hypercalcaemia, osteodystrophy with bone fractures, joint pain, itching and ectopic calcifications. The median preoperative parathyroid hormone level was 400 pg/ml. The operations performed were: subtotal parathyroidectomy (PTX 7/8) in 43 cases; total parathyroidectomy with autotransplantation (PTXt + At) in 13 cases; total parathyroidectomy (PTXt) alone in 6 cases and incomplete parathyroidectomy (PTXi) in 4 cases. The immediate results were satisfactory in each group. Calcium levels reverted to normal 24-48 hours postoperatively in 37 patients with PTX 7/8, in 11 patients with PTXt + At, in 5 patients with PTXt; 4 patients with PTXi showed a reduction, but no normalization, of calcium levels. Almost all patients, except those undergoing PTXi, showed an acceptable reduction in PTH levels in 25-35 days. Secondary hyperparathyroidism relapsed in 3 cases with PTXt + At and in 2 cases with PTX 7/8, while it proved persistent in 50% of patients with PTXi and in 7% of patients with PTX 7/8. Patients with PTXt mainly showed a substantial reduction of calcium levels. Parathyroidectomy is indispensable for the treatment of secondary hyper-parathyroidism. In our opinion, PTX 7/8 is the surgical treatment of choice because it is the easiest technique to perform and has the lowest relapse rate.
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PMID:[Indications and efficacy of parathyroidectomy in the treatment of secondary hyperparathyroidism in patients with chronic renal failure: our experience]. 1503 47

The characteristic rash of systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis is a transient erythematous eruption associated with a quotidian spiking fever. Usually asymptomatic, it can be pruritic, with dermatographism at sites of scratching or pressure. An illness similar to this entity in adults is designated adult-onset Still disease. The relationship between the pediatric and adult disease is uncertain and differences in case definition have evolved. Specifically, a sustained arthritis for at least 6 weeks is required for a diagnosis of systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, whereas transient arthritis and arthralgia are accepted criteria in adult-onset Still disease. We describe five patients less than 16 years of age who presented with an acute illness characterized by fever and a distinctive skin eruption. Intense pruritus and linear erythematous lesions flared with a spiking fever, usually in the late afternoon and evening. Periorbital edema/erythema and nonlinear urticarial lesions were also seen. Two children had splinter hemorrhages of the nail beds and one girl developed a fixed, scaling, pigmented, linear eruption. Severe malaise, myalgia, arthralgia, and leukocytosis were present in every patient. Other systemic manifestations included sore throat, transient arthritis, abdominal pain, lymphadenopathy, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, hyperferritinemia, and hepatic dysfunction. No patient had a sustained arthritis. The course of the disease was variable. One patient, diagnosed with macrophage activation syndrome, recovered on oral naproxen. Two patients responded to systemic corticosteroid therapy. One girl developed status epilepticus and died from aspiration and asphyxia. A boy with severe hepatitis developed renal failure and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and was treated with plasmapheresis, dialysis, and systemic corticosteroids; he had recurrent episodes of rash and fever into adult life. These children did not fulfill the case definition of systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis because they lacked a persistent arthritis. Adolescent and adult patients with the same clinical and laboratory findings are described under the rubric of adult-onset Still disease. Recognition of the distinctive urticarial skin eruption and spiking fever is important in the diagnosis of a disease with severe morbidity and potentially life-threatening complications.
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PMID:A pruritic linear urticarial rash, fever, and systemic inflammatory disease in five adolescents: adult-onset still disease or systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis sine arthritis? 1546 68

Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha plays an important role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Infliximab is an anti-TNF-alpha chimeric monoclonal antibody, which is licensed for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. Some reports have shown the efficacy of infliximab, either in monotherapy or in combination with methotrexate, for the treatment of psoriatic arthropathy and psoriasis. The efficacy and tolerability of infliximab monotherapy was evaluated in 29 patients with moderate to severe psoriasis, unresponsive to conventional treatments. Fourteen patients suffered from concomitant arthropathy. Patients received intravenous infliximab, 5mg/kg, at weeks 0, 2, and 6. After this 3-dose-induction regimen, patients were followed-up at monthly intervals and retreated with a single-dose infusion in case of relapse of signs and symptoms. Clinical assessment was performed using the psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) to monitor psoriasis activity; pruritus and joint pain were assessed on a scale of 0 to 3. A marked improvement of skin lesions and subjective symptoms was noted in the majority of patients; an excellent reduction of PASI score (> or =75%) was observed in 13.8% of cases at week 2, 71.4% at week 6 and 78.6% at week 10. During the follow-up period, some patients maintained satisfactory clinical results without requiring any additional infusions. In general, skin lesions showed a trend towards a more prolonged and sustained improvement as compared with subjective symptoms. Treatment was well tolerated and no serious adverse events occurred.
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PMID:Infliximab monotherapy for refractory psoriasis: preliminary results. 1546 71

The prevalence, severity, and clinical significance of physical and emotional symptoms in patients who are on maintenance hemodialysis remain incompletely characterized. This study sought to assess symptoms and their relationship to quality of life and depression. The recently developed Dialysis Symptom Index was used to assess the presence and the severity of 30 symptoms. The Illness Effects Questionnaire and Beck Depression Inventory were used to evaluate quality of life and depression, respectively. Correlations among symptom burden, symptom severity, quality of life, and depression were assessed using Spearman correlation coefficient. A total of 162 patients from three dialysis units were enrolled. Mean age was 62 y, 48% were black, 62% were men, and 48% had diabetes. The median number of symptoms was 9.0 (interquartile range 6 to 13). Dry skin, fatigue, itching, and bone/joint pain each were reported by > or =50% of patients. Seven additional symptoms were reported by >33% of patients. Sixteen individual symptoms were described as being more than "somewhat bothersome." Overall symptom burden and severity each were correlated directly with impaired quality of life and depression. In multivariable analyses adjusting for demographic and clinical variables including depression, associations between symptoms and quality of life remained robust. Physical and emotional symptoms are prevalent, can be severe, and are correlated directly with impaired quality of life and depression in maintenance hemodialysis patients. Incorporating a standard assessment of symptoms into the care provided to maintenance hemodialysis patients may provide a means to improve quality of life in this patient population.
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PMID:Prevalence, severity, and importance of physical and emotional symptoms in chronic hemodialysis patients. 1597 96

Schnitzler's syndrome is a rare clinical condition characterized by chronic urticaria, intermittent fever, bone pain, arthralgia or arthritis, and monoclonal immunoglobulin M (IgM) gammopathy. Here we describe the case of a 48-year-old Italian female with a long history of arthralgia, leucocytosis, spiking fever, and chronic urticaria with severe pruritus. The IgM-kappa monoclonal component in the serum and bone densification on conventional X-ray with hyperfixation on bone technetium scanning at the distal part of the femurs and at the proximal part of the tibias were detected 4 years after the onset of the symptoms. After many ineffective treatments, the use of pulse cyclophosphamide (CPX) resulted in complete remission of the disease that is still lasting after a 2-year follow-up.
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PMID:Schnitzler's syndrome treated successfully with intravenous pulse cyclophosphamide. 1619 69


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