An unusual cluster of Acremonium kiliense fungaemias in a haematopoietic cell transplantation unit.

The genus Acremonium (formerly known as Cephalosporium) is a large polyphyletic fungal genus that comprises approximately 150 phylogenetically distant species, commonly isolated from the environment. Clinical cases concern mostly superficial infections after traumatic inoculation, but there are reports of opportunistic invasive infections in immunocompromised patients. Acremonium kiliense has been described as a cause of mycetoma, keratitis, endophthalmitis, endocarditis, and continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis-associated peritonitis.

Acute lymphoplasmacytoid dendritic cell (DC2) leukemia: results from the Hellenic Dendritic Cell Leukemia Study Group.

We present a cohort of 22 patients with type 2 dendritic cell (DC2) acute leukemia (or blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasm-BPDCN, as it has been recently named), diagnosed in Greece over the past 12-year period, according to the main clinical and immunophenotypic features of this entity. Four additional cases are discussed, classified as leukemia of ambiguous lineage (LAL), because of the simultaneous detection of a CD56 negative DC2 population and of a second myeloid precursor cell population. The morphological features and cytogenetic findings of the typical BPDCN cases were similar to those previously described.

Function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis in long-term survivors of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for hematological diseases.

Gonadal dysfunction in adult long-term survivors of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is an adverse effect of conditioning regimens consisting of chemotherapy and total body irradiation (TBI). The impact of conditioning regimens consisting of chemotherapy alone on the function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis was evaluated in a series of 41 female and 31 male patients who had undergone either autologous or allogeneic bone marrow/peripheral blood stem cell transplantation; mean age at transplantation was 32.6 years and mean time interval from transplantation was 1.