A 49-year-old man suffered from progressive dementia and seizures leading to death after 2 years. CT scans showed severe cortical-subcortical atrophy and hypodensity of the white matter. His father had died at about the same age with similar clinical signs. Two sisters and one brother were also affected. Neuropathological study revealed predominant involvement of the cerebral white matter with myelin loss, gliosis and type I lacunes. The small arteries and arterioles of the white matter and basal ganglia, and, to a lesser extent those of the subarachnoidal space, displayed fibrosis and replacement of the media by an eosinophilic, PAS positive, Congo Red negative, granular substance. Electron microscopy showed swollen myocytes surrounded by collagen, elastin and a compact electron-dense material. Immunofluorescence using antibodies against IgA, IgG, IgM, C1q and C3 stained the abnormal media weakly. In the cortex, there were diffuse senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated beta/A4 positive material in cortical senile plaques but not in arterial walls. Adventitial macrophages were, however, immunoreactive for gamma-trace. Systemic arterioles were normal. The vascular changes and leukoencephalopathy are comparable to those described in 'Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy' (CADASIL). Similar vascular changes were also observed in nonfamilial cases. An association with Alzheimer changes in the cortex has not been described previously. The relationship between both diseases and the role of each in the causation of the dementia is unclear.

Since 1960 more than 3000 consecutive patients with operable infiltrating breast carcinoma were treated by radiation therapy with or without primary limited surgery, which usually consisted of local excision. For tumors smaller than or equal to 5 cm the ten-year crude survival rate is 77% for patients without palpable axillary nodes (T1-2N0) and 63% for patients having axillary adenopathy (T1-2N0). For operable tumors exceeding 5 cm of diameter (T3N0-1) the ten-year crude survival is 34%. Thirty-five percent of the patients alive free of disease at ten years required a secondary operation for presumed local or regional tumor persistence or recurrence, although no residual disease was found in 24% of the operative specimens. Local-regional recurrence had no adverse effect on ten-year survival. This conservative approach offers most women with operable breast cancer an excellent chance at breast preservation with the same chance for ten-year survival as with radical mastectomy.

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A 70-year-old man extracted his own pacemaker and subclavian port used for delivery of chemotherapy, both implanted 2 weeks earlier. The patient died of septicemia within 6 days. This fatal outcome illustrates the risks of complications associated with severe psychiatric disorders after implantation of prosthetic devices.

Treatment of breast cancer involves surgery, then perhaps radiation, hormonal or chemotherapy. Radiation-induced arterial injury is a well-known entity that represents a rare cause of arterial occlusion. We present the case of a 76-year old woman who complained of a severe intermittent claudication of the right upper limb. Twenty years before, she underwent a right-sided radical mastectomy followed by intense radiation therapy for several weeks. The patient was found to suffer of a radiotherapy-related axillary artery thrombosis and was successfully treated by angioplasty and stenting.