First cases of macrophagic myofasciitis appear in North America.(Brief Article)

2002 JUN 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Roxanne Nelson, staff medical writer - The first two cases of an unusual clinical and pathological entity have been encountered in North America.

"Macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF) is a rare, seemingly emerging entity among adult patients in France," report researchers in Florida. However, both cases in North America were found in pediatric patients.

MMF was reported in 1998 by investigators in France in The Lancet, as that "unusual inflammatory myopathy characterized by an infiltration of nonepithelioid histiocytic cells has been recorded with increasing frequency in the past 5 years in France" (Macrophagic myofasciitis: An emerging entity. Groupe d'Etudes et Recherche sur les Maladies Musculaires Acquises et Dysimmunitaires (GERMMAD) de l'Association Francaise contre les Myopathies (AFM), Lancet, 1998;352(9125):347-352).

Further research by the French investigators led them to strongly suspect that this condition might be caused by aluminum hydroxide, which is commonly used as a vaccine adjuvant. Many of U.S. licensed vaccines, along with those used around the world, contain aluminum salts. These include routine childhood immunizations, such as the DTaP and hepatitis B (Macrophagic myofasciitis lesions assess long-term persistence of vaccine-derived aluminium hydroxide in muscle, Brain, 2001;124(Pt 9):1821-31). The MMF lesion was found to be secondary to an intramuscular injection of an aluminum-hydroxide vaccine, according to the French team.

A.G. Lacson and colleagues assessed the data on two young children who underwent neurological work-ups based on their symptoms. One was a 5-year-old boy presenting with a chronic intestinal disorder that necessitated the use of parenteral nutrition during the night. He also suffered from urinary retention and had abnormal pupillary reflexes. The second patient was a developmentally delayed, hypotonic 3-year-old. Both children had received routine and ...