• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.155-160
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• 2001

Cryoglobulinemia is the presence of globulins in the serum that precipitate on exposure to cold temperatures(cryoglobulins). Pulmonary complications of cryoglobulinemia include interstial infiltration, impaired gas exchange, small airway disease and pleurisy. Only one other acute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS) case has been described in patients with cryoglobulinemia. A 55-years old man was admitted with dyspnea. He had been diagnosed as being a hepatitis B virus antigen carrier 15 years ago. On the first admission, chest radiography showed a bilateral pleural effusion and a patchy infiltration on both lungs. On protein- and immuno-electrophoresis, cryoglobulinemia was confirmed. The patient was treated with corticosteroid and plasmapheresis. Forty-five days after the diagnosis, the patient complained of progressive dyspnea and showed a diffuse bilateral pulmonary infiltration on chest radiography. Despite intensive care with mechanical ventilation, the patient died as consequence of hypoxemia and multiple systemic organ failure. On a pathologic examination of the postmortem lung biopsy, multiple necrotizing vasculitis and increased infiltration of the lymphocytes and monocytes were observed. In conclusion, ARDS developed as a result of pulmonary hemorrhage due to cryoglobulinemia-associated vasculitis.

• Annals of Clinical Neurophysiology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.101-103
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• 2008

Many neurologists, particularly whose subspecialty is in peripheral neurology, may agree that patients with peripheral neuropathy often complain of the "restless legs" symptoms. These symptoms seem to share the typical features of the so-called "restless legs syndrome (RLS)", i.e., unpleasant sensations in the leg/feet, worsening in the evening or at night, and the partial relief of the positive sensory symptoms by the movements such as walking, shaking or rubbing. In fact, a higher incidence of RLS was reported among the neuropathic patients, and peripheral neuropathy was found to be more prevalent in patients with RLS than in general population. Moreover, RLS share many risk factors with peripheral neuropathy such as diabetes, uremia, amyloidosis and cryoglobulinemia, which suggests that peripheral neuropathy may play a pathophysiologic role in the development of RLS.