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In a family with synovial chondromatosis affecting at least three, presumably five members, the articular disorder was combined with dwarfism. The persons with joint disorders were below the third percentile in body height, but family members with normal articular function had normal height. We believe this to be the first description of a combination of synovial chondromatosis with genetically caused dwarfism.

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Intravenous administration of pentamidine is known to cause long-QT syndrome (Torsade de pointes tachycardias and large QT prolongation) in rare cases and to cause small QT prolongation regularly. A similar pattern is seen with other drugs known to cause a long-QT syndrome. Pentamidine aerosol prophylaxis is commonly used to prevent Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in HIV-infected persons. The goal of this study was to clarify whether pentamidine aerosol prophylaxis induces QT prolongation. We examined 100 patients receiving pentamidine aerosol prophylaxis at a rather high dose (300 mg biweekly) for at least 1 month (range 1-24) by determining the QT interval corrected for heart rate (QTc), blind for treatment. In a cross-sectional study, QTc was not different in 50 HIV-infected patients with chronic pentamidine aerosol prophylaxis (413 ms), 50 similar HIV-infected patients without pentamidine (407 ms), and 50 similar patients without HIV-infection and without pentamidine (407 ms). In a longitudinal study in another 50 HIV-infected patients, QTc was the same before (414 ms) and on long-term (median 9-month) pentamidine aerosol prophylaxis (414 ms). In contrast to the case with intravenous pentamidine, we found no QT prolongation and thereby no risk of long-QT syndrome with pentamidine aerosol prophylaxis.