Loss of cytomegalovirus-specific immunological memory in a patient with thymoma.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis is a re-activation infection associated with severely impaired T cell-mediated immunity. We describe a patient with long-standing Crohn's disease and thymoma who developed severe CMV retinitis. While thymoma can be associated with impaired humoral immunity and a quantitative CD4+ T helper cell deficiency, these were not evident in our patient.

Tacrolimus (FK506) in the management of high-risk corneal and limbal grafts.

Objective: To assess the efficacy and side effects of tacrolimus in the management of patients with high-risk corneal and limbal grafts.

Design: Noncomparative case series.

Participants: Seventeen patients (23 grafts) were treated with tacrolimus; 15 patients (20 host corneas) had two or more quadrants of stromal vascularization, 6 patients had stem cell deficiency, and 6 patients had glaucoma.

Tacrolimus (FK506) in the treatment of posterior uveitis refractory to cyclosporine.

Objective: To assess the efficacy and side effects of tacrolimus, a potent immunosuppressive macrolide antibiotic, in the treatment of sight-threatening uveitis.

Design: A clinical study of tacrolimus in patients who required systemic immunosuppression for control of uveitis, but were refractory to cyclosporine.

Participants: Six patients with uveitis were treated: three had Behçet disease, one had microscopic polyangiitis, one had pars planitis, and one had idiopathic retinal vasculitis.

Documentation of Epstein-Barr virus infection in immunodeficient patients with life-threatening lymphoproliferative diseases by clinical, virological, and immunopathological studies.

Multiple methods, pedigree analysis, clinical evaluation, and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-specific serology, EBV DNA hybridization of tissues to probe for viral genome, staining of touch imprints for EBV nuclear-associated antigen, establishment of spontaneous infected B-cell lines from peripheral blood or tissues, examination of peripheral blood smears, and hematopathology studies, were used to study seven patients with the X-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome and seven additional patients with life-threatening EBV-associated diseases. These studies demonstrated EBV in the tissues of all 14 patients and immunodeficient antibody responses to EBV were documented. This virus can produce various life-threatening lymphoproliferative diseases in a variety of immunodeficient patients.