Long-term results of brentuximab vedotin in relapsed and refractory Hodgkin lymphoma: multi-center real-life experience.

Classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) is considered a curable disease; however, approximately one-third of responders experience disease relapse following first-line therapy. Several studies have shown the efficacy of brentuximab vedotin (BV) in patients with relapsed/refractory HL. We present a retrospective analysis of 58 patients with relapsed/refractory HL treated with BV in a named patient program from 11 centers.

Complete heart block in a neutropenic patient with invasive aspergillosis.

A patient with leukemia who developed complete heart block after the diagnosis of pulmonary aspergillosis is reported. The patient had probable invasive pulmonary aspergillosis with a sudden tachypnea, dyspnea, fever, bilateral pulmonary infiltrates and acute respiratory insufficiency after chemotherapy. On the sixth day of antifungal therapy, she developed complete atrioventricular block.

Myelodysplastic syndrome with pseudoreticulocytosis.

A patient with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) with refractory anemia who had marked reticulocytosis in the absence of hemolytic anemia and/or blood loss is reported. Erythrocyte survival test showed that more than 50% of the patient's reticulocytes were still present on day seven. This should be due to the prolongation of reticulocyte maturation in MDS, and is known as pseudoreticulocytosis.

Serum mannose-binding lectin levels are decreased in behcet's disease and associated with disease severity.

Objective: To investigate serum levels of mannose-binding lectin (MBL), a complement-like protein of collectin family, in patients with Behcet's disease (BD).

Methods: MBL levels were measured in sera of 130 patients with BD, 64 patients with recurrent oral ulcerations (ROU), and 105 healthy controls (HC) with ELISA.

Results: Patients with BD had significantly lower median serum MBL levels compared to HC (1857 vs 3136 ng/ml, p = 0.