174 research outputs found
Acyvlovir in Herpes Simplex infection in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia may induce apoptosis of lymphocytes
No full text
Inhibition of apoptosis in stage A Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia is reversed by acyclovir
No full textIdarubicin in combination with cytarabine and VP-16 in the treatment of post-MDS AML patients
No full textReviewed diagnosis of primary and secondary immune thrombocytopenic purpura in 79 adult patients hospitalized in 2000-2002
No full textDespite the accepted distinction between primary and secondary immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), a systematic analysis of the incidence of secondary ITP is not available. The present study was aimed at verifying the frequency and, consequently, the approximate rates of prevalence and incidence of secondary ITP and analysing its clinical and laboratory characteristics in patients needing ordinary hospital treatment for ITP. The study was based on 79 consecutive, adult ITP patients admitted to three Italian hospitals in 2000-2002. Using data collected in a previous study on the appropriateness of hospital management of ITP, we evaluated the frequency of secondary ITP, with the diagnosis formulated on the basis of new acquisitions, derived its rates of prevalence and incidence, and examined the available clinical and laboratory parameters. At our case review, a diagnosis of secondary ITP could be formulated in 38% of the 79 patients. This frequency was significantly higher than that determined at the time the patients were discharged from hospital (13.9%) (P = 0.000). The derived rates of prevalence and incidence of secondary ITP in the general population were, respectively, 2.3 and 1.23 per 100 000 inhabitants per year. In comparison with patients with primary ITP, those with a secondary form more frequently had spleen enlargement (P = 0.000), hepatomegaly (P = 0.001) and lower haemoglobin values (P = 0.005). The high frequency of secondary ITP must be mainly attributed to the currently available knowledge about the nature of some forms of ITP. Particular contributors to the high frequency were cases secondary to infections and those observed in patients who had undergone bone marrow or solid organ transplantation. Some clinical and laboratory alterations appear to be more frequent in secondary ITP than in primary ITP. However, the importance that the identification of particular forms of ITP, such as those secondary to Helicobacter pylori or hepatitis C virus infections, has on the choice of treatment suggests that these conditions must be ascertained independently of the presence or absence of clinical and laboratory alteration
Cryoglobulinaemias: a multi-centre study of the early clinical and laboratory manifestations of primary and secondary disease. GISC. Italian Group for the Study of Cryoglobulinaemias
No full textIn a multi-centre retrospective study, we compared clinical and laboratory data in 913 patients with cryoglobulinaemias, divided as: (i) essential cryoglobulinaemias; (ii) cryoglobulinaemias secondary to connective tissue diseases (CTD), lymphoproliferative or other haematological diseases (LPD), chronic liver diseases (CLD), and 'other diseases'. Purpura was the commonest presenting feature in all groups and was more common in essential cryoglobulinaemias (p3% (p<0.0001), C4<15mg/dl (p<0.001), HBsAg prevalence (p<0.01) and purpura (p<0.05). Despite the high prevalence of HCV markers in all groups, the role of HCV in essential cryoglobulinaemia is not well defined; HBV seems to play only a marginal role
Incidence and characteristics of non-hodgkin's lymphomas in HCV-positive patients with mixed cryoglobulinemia
No full textNon-Hodgkin's lymphomas arise in HCV-positive patients with cryoglobulinemia at a frequency higher than in either the general matched population or in HCV-patients without cryoglobulinemia. The relevance of the cryogenic effect on the response to treatment and on prognosis has been poorly assessed with respect to the characteristics of this patient population, and the typical histological patterns linked to this situation have not been easily identifiable. In recent years, many biological findings have suggested a relevant role of the patient's genetic background in favoring the malignant evolution of this disease, in which the long-lasting presence of an antigen that induces the production of cryoprecipitating immune complexes drives the expansion of lymphoid tissue in a manner that is unstable and prone to evolve toward a lymphoid malignancy
Compartmentalization of hepatitis C virus quasispecies in blood mononuclear cells of patients with mixed cryoglobulinemic syndrome
No full textThe aim of this study was to investigate the quasispecies heterogeneity of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the plasma, cryoprecipitate, and peripheral lymphocytes of chronically infected HCV patients with mixed cryoglobulinemia (MC). We studied 360 clones from 10 HCV-positive patients with MC and 8 age-, gender- and HCV genotype-matched subjects with chronic HCV infection but without MC. A partial nucleotide sequence encompassing the E1/E2 region, including hypervariable region 1 (HVR1), was amplified and cloned from plasma, cryoprecipitates, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and the genetic diversity and complexity and synonymous and nonsynonymous substitution rates were determined. Heterogeneous selection pressure at codon sites was evaluated. Compartmentalization was estimated by phylogenetic and phenetic (Mantel's test) approaches. The patients with MC had 3.3 times lower nonsynonymous substitution rates (1.7 versus 5.7 substitutions/100 sites). Among the subjects with HCV genotype 1, the MC patients had significantly less complexity than the controls, whereas the diversity and complexity were similar in the genotype 2 patients and controls. Site-specific selection analysis confirmed the low frequency of MC patients showing positive selection. There was a significant correlation between positive selection and the infecting HCV genotype. The quasispecies were less heterogeneous in PBMC than in plasma. Significant compartmentalization of HCV quasispecies was observed in the PBMC of four of nine subjects (three with MC) and seven of nine cryoprecipitates. In one subject with MC, we detected a 5-amino-acid insertion at codons 385 to 389 of HVR1. Our results suggest reduced quasispecies heterogeneity in MC patients that is related to a low selection pressure which is probably due to an impaired immune response, the HCV genotype, and/or the duration of the infection. The frequent HCV quasispecies compartmentalization in patients' PBMC suggests a possible pathogenetic significance. Copyright (copyright) 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved
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