Restless legs syndrome (RLS) occurred in 10% of women and 5% of men. RLS prevalence decreases after the age of 64. RLS is often underdiagnosed and few subjects receive recommended RLS drug treatment.

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Purpose. To determine the prevalence of ocular surface diseases and identify risk factors in a population of patients receiving antiglaucomatous eyedrops over the long term. Methods. An observational cross-sectional study was designed to investigate ocular surface signs and symptoms using simple clinical tools. An ocular surface disease intensity score was calculated based on 10 questions regarding ocular surface symptoms and signs with a 4-grade scale. Patients were classified into 3 groups (A, B, and C) according to this total score. A multinomial logistic regression was performed in order to identify risk factors for surface disease. Results. In an overall population of 516 patients, 49% belonged to group A, 30% to group B, and 21% to group C. The multivariate analysis showed that the following factors were correlated with the severity of ocular surface disease: patient age, number of daily eyedrops, past topical treatment changes for ocular intolerance (found in the history of 40% of the patients), intraocular pressure (found to be significantly higher in patients with more severe ocular surface disease), and glaucoma severity. Conclusions. Patients treated for primary open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension often have ocular surface diseases, more often and more severely in older patients receiving more drugs and presenting with more severe glaucoma. These high prevalence values might therefore have consequences on the burden of the disease in terms of adherence to treatment and quality of life.

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BackgroundFibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a rare, severely disabling, and life-shortening genetic disorder that causes the formation of heterotopic bone within soft connective tissue. Previous studies found that the FOP prevalence was about one in every two million lives. The aim of this study is to estimate the FOP prevalence in France by probabilistic record-linkage of 2 national databases: 1) the PMSI (Programme de médicalisation des systèmes d’information), an administrative database that records all hospitalization activities in France and 2) CEMARA, a registry database developed by the French Centres of Reference for Rare Diseases.ResultsUsing a capture-recapture methodology to adjust the crude number of patients identified in both data sources, 89 FOP patients were identified, which results in a prevalence of 1.36 per million inhabitants (CI95% = [1.10; 1.68]). FOP patients’ mean age was 25 years, only 14.9% were above 40 years, and 53% of them were males. The first symptoms – beside toe malformations- occurred after birth for 97.3% of them. Mean age at identified symptoms was 7 years and above 18 years for only 6.9% of patients. Mean age at diagnosis was 10 years, and above 18 years for 14.9% of the patients. FOP patients were distributed across France.ConclusionsDespite the challenge of ascertaining patients with rare diseases, we report a much higher prevalence of FOP in France than in previous studies elsewhere. We suggest that efforts to identify patients and confirm the diagnosis of FOP should be reinforced and extended at both national and European level.