Hypertension presenting early in pregnancy

Paraganglioma in pregnancy is an exceedingly rare and potentially life‐threatening diagnosis. It is important that the clinicians consider secondary causes when women present with hypertension in early pregnancy.     

Associated factors of umbilical cord blood collection quality

After 30 years of hematopoietic stem cell use for various indications, umbilical cord blood is considered as an established source of cells with marrow and postmobilization peripheral blood. The limited number of cells still remains a problematic element restricting their use, especially in adults who require to be grafted with a higher cell number. Improving the quality of harvested cord blood, at least in terms of volume and amount of cells, is essential to decrease the number of discarded units. In this review, we examine several variables related to parturient, pregnancy, labor, delivery, collection, the newborn, umbilical cord, and placenta. We aim to understand the biologic mechanisms that can impact cord blood quality. This knowledge will ultimately allow targeting donors, which could provide a rich graft and improve the efficiency of the collection.     

Examining Mediators of the Relationship Between Community Mobilization and HIV Incidence Among Young South African Women Participating in the HPTN 068 Study Cohort

AIDS and Behavior - We previously demonstrated that village community mobilization (CM) was associated with reduced HIV incidence among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in South Africa....     

Using Participatory Methods to Assess PrEP Interest and Uptake Among Young People Living in the Southeastern US: A Mixed Methods Assessment

AIDS and Behavior - Adolescents and young adults (AYA; 13–24 years-old) comprise 22% of new HIV infections in the United States (US), most of whom live in the South. We used the...     

Chronic and Acute Prenatal and Postnatal Ethanol Exposure on Lymphocyte Subsets from Offspring Thymic, Splenic, and Intestinal Intraepithelial Sources

The overall objective of this study was to analyze the effects of a combined prenatal and postnatal (entire gestational human chronic drinking model) ethanol exposure on T-cell development in mice. Specifically, this study evaluated the effects of chronic exposure to prenatal ethanol on lymphocyte makeup and proliferative capabilities of postnatal offspring's (4 and 12 weeks) peripheral lymphoid tissues. Chronic exposure regimens were conducted over the entire gestational period and through postnatal day 14 or 21. Thymus, spleen, and intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes were harvested and analyzed by flow cytometry for percentages of T-cell subsets. Splenic lymphocytes were also analyzed for their ability to proliferate in response to a T-cell mitogen. Limited effects of chronic ethanol exposure were seen.     

Cyclic neutropenia

Cyclic neutropenia is a rare hematologic disorder, characterized by repetitive episodes of fever, mouth ulcers, and infections attributable to recurrent severe neutropenia. Fluctuations in blood cells are due to oscillatory production of cells by the bone marrow. Recent genetic, molecular, and cellular studies have shown that autosomal-dominant cyclic neutropenia and sporadic cases of this disease are due to a mutation in the gene for neutrophil elastase (ELA2), located at 19p13.3. This enzyme is synthesized in neutrophil precursors early in the process of primary granule formation. It is currently presumed that the mutant neutrophil elastase functions aberrantly within the cells to accelerate apoptosis of the precursors, resulting in effective and oscillatory production. Cyclic neutropenia is effectively treated with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), usually at doses of 1 to 5 microg/kg/d (median dose, 2.5 microg/kg/d). Long-term, daily, or alternate-day administration reduces fever, mouth ulcers, and other inflammatory events associated with this disorder. Leukemic transformation is not a recognized risk for cyclic neutropenia, with or without treatment with G-CSF.     

Immunoaffinity Extraction and Alternative Approaches for the Analysis of Toxins in Environmental,Food or Biological Matrices

The evolution of instrumentation in terms of separation and detection allowed a real improvement of the sensitivity and analysis time. However, the analysis of ultra-traces of toxins in complex samples requires often a step of purification and even preconcentration before their chromatographic analysis. Therefore, immunoaffinity sorbents based on specific antibodies thus providing a molecular recognition mechanism appear as powerful tools for the selective extraction of a target molecule and its structural analogs to obtain more reliable and sensitive quantitative analysis in environmental, food or biological matrices. This review focuses on immunosorbents that have proven their efficiency in selectively extracting various types of toxins of various sizes (from small mycotoxins to large proteins) and physicochemical properties. Immunosorbents are now commercially available, and their use has been validated for numerous applications. The wide variety of samples to be analyzed, as well as extraction conditions and their impact on extraction yields, is discussed. In addition, their potential for purification and thus suppression of matrix effects, responsible for quantification problems especially in mass spectrometry, is presented. Due to their similar properties, molecularly imprinted polymers and aptamer-based sorbents that appear to be an interesting alternative to antibodies are also briefly addressed by comparing their potential with that of immunosorbents.     

Zystischer Tumor an der Leberpforte

A cystic entity from the porta hepatis of a 64-year-old female patient was sent in for rapid section diagnostics with a clinical suspicion of pancreatic cancer. The rapid section diagnostics revealed aspects of glandular proliferation with mucous-like material in the lumina which led to the suspicion of infiltration of a highly differentiated mucinous adenocarcinoma. However, conventional paraffin-section histology and the immunohistochemical marker profile could not confirm this suspicion but an adenomatoid tumor was diagnosed. In typical locations in the genital area of both genders, this entity is a current differential diagnosis to infiltrations of an adenocarcinoma.     

Unusual concomitant rearrangements of Cyclin D1 and MYC genes in blastoid variant of mantle cell lymphoma: Case report and review of literature

We report herein a case of blastoid variant mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) with both aberrant phenotype and unusual genetics. Unexpectedly, lymphoma cells were CD5⁻ and CD10⁺. Standard karyotype and FISH techniques showed that tumor cells carried two distinct translocations which had not been reported together in a same tumor. The first translocation juxtaposed the immunoglobulin lambda light chain locus with CCND1 locus, leading to Cyclin D1 overexpression. The second translocation revealed MYC rearrangement with a non-immunoglobulin gene partner located on the short arm of chromosome 4. The interpretation of the case on tissue sections alone could have been challenging. Indeed, the lack of CD5 and expression of CD10 associated with MYC rearrangement detected on interphasic nuclei could support the diagnosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma or Burkitt lymphoma. This distinction is also especially important as these lymphoma subtypes require specific treatment.