Erysipelas-like inflammation following breast surgery.

Impaired lymph drainage is an inevitable consequence of any form of surgery that disrupts lymphatics, resulting in a degree of lymphoedema that may vary from subtle to dramatic and although classically involving an entire limb, may be more localised, confined to only a small area such as a skin flap. Infection is a well-recognised complication of lymphoedema. However, not all inflammatory episodes occurring in the setting of lymphatic dysfunction can be clearly attributed to infection as this article demonstrates. Five patients presented over a 5-year period with distinctive erysipelas-like inflammation affecting the breast which occurred several weeks following reduction mammaplasty in four patients and breast reconstruction in one patient. No clinical response was obtained with standard antibiotics. This inflammatory problem may represent a previously unreported complication of breast surgery with an incidence of 4% following reduction mammaplasty. Recent research supports the notion that this type of episode is most likely to be due to a non-infective inflammatory process related to lymphatic dysfunction induced by surgery.     

Déficit émotionnel et intelligence machiavélique : étude des interrelations entre l'échelle d'alexithymie de Toronto (TAS-20) et l'inventaire mach-iv dans une population de 201 étudiants

The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between alexithymia and machiavellianism in a group of 201 university students. The subjects filled out the TAS-20 and the MACH-IV forms. The results showed firstly, a significant correlation between the two total scores (r = 0.35, P < 0.05), and secondly between the identification of feelings subscale of the TAS-20 and the opinions about human nature subscale of the Mach-IV (r = 0.44, P < 0.05). The results were discussed in light of the different factors (depression, dependency, psychoticism…) that could explain the relationship between the two concepts.     

Disorders in high-density metabolism with insulin resistance and chronic kidney disease.

Cardiovascular risk increases with each decrement in renal function. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels are not associated with increased mortality, but high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels are inversely associated with cardiovascular risk. Lipoprotein composition with increased abundance of small dense LDL and HDL and reduced levels of more buoyant isoforms is similar to what is found in states of insulin resistance and in the metabolic syndrome (MS). In both cases, high triglyceride levels are associated with reduced HDL levels. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is itself associated with increasing insulin resistance as renal function fails. In both instances, decreased levels of apo A-I and apo A-II are a consequence of increased fractional catabolic rate (FCR), resulting from a predominance of small HDL particles. HDL maturation is impaired in CKD through decreased activity of lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT), and increased cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP) activity in MS shuttles triglycerides back into HDL, thereby destabilizing it. Whether insulin resistance is entirely responsible for disorders of HDL metabolism in CKD, or whether the process is a result of unrelated pathophysiology, is currently unknown.