Translation and validation of the Greek "Minnesota Living with Heart Failure" questionnaire.

Introduction: The Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) is an important measurement instrument for assessing the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among heart failure patients. The purpose of this study was to translate and validate the MLHFQ in the Greek language.

Methods: Three hundred forty-four consecutive adult patients from three General Hospitals, two in Athens and one in another part of the country, who were diagnosed with chronic heart failure, and 347 healthy controls were enrolled in the study from March 2009 to March 2010.

Ochroconis gallopavum infection in a lung transplant recipient: report of a case.

Disseminated phaeohyphomycoses are rare infections caused by dematiaceous fungi. Ochroconis gallopavum is a neurotropic dematiaceous mold responsible for life-threatening respiratory and central nervous system infections in domestic poultry and in immunologically compromised humans. The world literature describes only 13 previous O gallopavum infections in solid organ transplant recipients.

Treatment of severe psoriasis with etanercept in a pancreas-kidney transplant recipient.

Severe psoriasis is a rare condition under immunosuppressive therapy. We describe a 42-years-old man with psoriasis since the age of 22 years. The patient underwent a combined pancreas-kidney transplantation at the age of 32 because of Goodpasture syndrome with renal and pulmonary involvments and type 1 diabetes mellitus.

Claudin-7 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Background: The importance of adhesion molecules for local invasion by neoplastic cells and development of metastasis has been confirmed by numerous studies over the past decade. Claudins are integral parts of tight junctions. The aim of the present study was to examine the significance of the expression of claudin-7 messenger RNA (mRNA) as a prognostic factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

Long-term outcomes of liver transplant patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection and end-stage-liver-disease: single center experience.

Objective: Orthotopic-liver-transplantation (OLT) in patients with Human-Immunodeficiency-Virus infection (HIV) and end-stage-liver-disease (ESDL) is rarely reported. The purpose of this study is to describe our institutional experience on OLT for HIV positive patients.

Material And Methods: This is a retrospective study of all HIV-infected patients who underwent OLT at the University Hospital of Essen, from January 1996 to December 2009.