1/2. pellagra: a rare disease observed in a victim of mental and physical abuse.Lesions of the brain stem and cerebellum due to nutritional deficiencies are mostly seen in chronic alcohol abuse and more rarely in severe malnutrition. We report the case of a 27-year-old woman, found dead in the family flat. She presented cachexia (167 cm, 25 kg) and multiple hematomas of the limbs. Postmortem examination revealed lesions due to peritonitis. Neuropathological examination showed severe atrophy of the corpus callosum and central neuronal chromatolysis, which are observed in pellagra. Inflammatory colitis or celiac disease was not found. Toxicological analysis was negative, in particular no alcohol absorption. pellagra, which is due to nicotinamide deficiency, is a disease rarely seen in this country. In this case, nutritional deficiency was the consequence of failure to eat in a context of abuse. The woman was born of an incestuous relationship and presented intellectual retardation due to poor affective relations with her mother.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = rare disease (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/2. Gelatinous transformation of bone marrow in systemic lupus erythematosus.Gelatinous transformation of marrow is a rare disease entity described in cachexia and various other disorders. Its association with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) has never been reported. We found gelatinous transformation in 3 of 30 patients with SLE with pancytopenia. Two of these patients were cachetic, one of whom also had active tuberculosis. We propose that gelatinous transformation can be associated with SLE, and its detection calls for an evaluation of nutritional status, and a search for chronic debilitating infections such as tuberculosis.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 0.25keywords = rare disease (Clic here for more details about this article) |