and Genetic Polymorphisms Associated with Alloimmunisation in Sickle Cell Disease.

Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion remains a critical component in caring for the acute and chronic complications of sickle cell disease (SCD). Patient alloimmunisation is the main limitation of transfusion, which can worsen anaemia and lead to delayed haemolytic transfusion reaction or transfusion deadlock. Although biological risk factors have been identified for immunisation, patient alloimmunisation remains difficult to predict.

Trends in the number and the quality of trial protocols involving children submitted to a French Institutional Review Board.

Background: There is a great need for high quality clinical research for children. The European Pediatric Regulation aimed to improve the quality of clinical trials in order to increase the availability of treatments for children. The main purpose of this study was to assess the evolution of both the number and the quality of pediatric trial protocols that were submitted to a French Institutional Review Board (IRB00009118) before and after the initiation of the EU Pediatric Regulation.

Diagnostic score for heparin-induced thrombocytopenia after cardiopulmonary bypass.

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) occurs in nearly 3% of patients treated with heparin after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). HIT carries a risk of severe thrombotic complications, and must be diagnosed rapidly. To identify simple criteria for estimating the probability of HIT after CPB, we retrospectively analyzed the files of 84 patients with suspected HIT after CPB and we analyzed the usefulness of several variables collected at the time of HIT suspicion to estimate HIT probability.

Early apoptosis-related changes triggered by HSV-1 in individual neuronlike cells.

Early events of apoptosis following HSV-1 infection were investigated at the single-cell level using intensified fluorescence digital-imaging microscopy. The results provide evidence that infection of differentiated ND7 neuronlike cells by HSV-1 triggers detectable alterations indicative of physiological changes associated with the early stages of apoptosis. Less than 1 h after infection with HSV-1 (KOS strain) or K26GFP (GFP being fused to HSV-1 capsid protein VP26) we observed (i) moderate decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential (about 20%), (ii) exposure of phosphatidyl serine, (iii) morphological change in the mitochondria that became spherical instead of filamentous, and (iv) activation of caspase-8.

Aortic stiffness is an independent predictor of fatal stroke in essential hypertension.

Background And Purpose: Pulse pressure is a stronger predictor of cardiovascular events than systolic or diastolic blood pressure in large cohorts of French and North American patients. However, its influence on stroke is controversial. Large-artery stiffness is the main determinant of pulse pressure.

Picosecond-hetero-FRET microscopy to probe protein-protein interactions in live cells.

By using a novel time- and space-correlated single-photon counting detector, we show that fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) and yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) fused to herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (TK) monomers can be used to reveal homodimerization of TK in the nucleus and cytoplasm of live cells. However, the quantification of energy transfer was limited by the intrinsic biexponential fluorescence decay of the donor CFP (lifetimes of 1.3 +/- 0.

Incorporation of green fluorescent protein into the essential envelope glycoprotein B of herpes simplex virus type 1.

Herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) glycoprotein B (gB) is a major virion component, essential for various steps of virus replication in cells, such as entry and maturation, and cell fusion. In addition, gB is a strong inducer of the immune response in humans and has been involved in neuropathogenesis. To analyze gB during infection, a recombinant HSV-1 was generated containing gB fused to the green fluorescent protein (GFP).

Aortic stiffness is an independent predictor of primary coronary events in hypertensive patients: a longitudinal study.

Arterial stiffness may predict coronary heart disease beyond classic risk factors. In a longitudinal study, we assessed the predictive value of arterial stiffness on coronary heart disease in patients with essential hypertension and without known clinical cardiovascular disease. Aortic stiffness was determined from carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity at baseline in 1045 hypertensives.

Homo-FRET microscopy in living cells to measure monomer-dimer transition of GFP-tagged proteins.

Fluorescence anisotropy decay microscopy was used to determine, in individual living cells, the spatial monomer-dimer distribution of proteins, as exemplified by herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (TK) fused to green fluorescent protein (GFP). Accordingly, the fluorescence anisotropy dynamics of two fusion proteins (TK27GFP and TK366GFP) was recorded in the confocal mode by ultra-sensitive time-correlated single-photon counting. This provided a measurement of the rotational time of these proteins, which, by comparing with GFP, allowed the determination of their oligomeric state in both the cytoplasm and the nucleus.

Aortic stiffness is an independent predictor of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in hypertensive patients.

Although various studies reported that pulse pressure, an indirect index of arterial stiffening, was an independent risk factor for mortality, a direct relationship between arterial stiffness and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality remained to be established in patients with essential hypertension. A cohort of 1980 essential hypertensive patients who attended the outpatient hypertension clinic of Broussais Hospital between 1980 and 1996 and who had a measurement of arterial stiffness was studied. At entry, aortic stiffness was assessed from the measurement of carotid-femoral pulse-wave velocity (PWV).

A moderate but not total decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential triggers apoptosis in neuron-like cells.

The effects of various degrees of perturbation of the mitochondrial membrane potential (mt delta psi) on apoptosis was investigated by intensified fluorescence digital-imaging microscopy on neuron-like cells, ND7. Mt delta psi was either decreased by 40% by the protonophore carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone (FCCP 100 nM, 15 min) or completely collapsed (FCCP 10 microM, 60 min). A moderate decrease of mt delta psi induced a reduction of mitochondrial NADH, followed by exposure of phosphatidyl serine and then by chromatin condensation, 36% of nuclei being condensed 60 min after FCCP treatment.

The Detection of Multimodal Oscillations on alpha Ursae Majoris.

We have used the star camera on the Wide-Field Infrared Explorer satellite to observe the K0 III star alpha UMa, and we report the apparent detection of 10 oscillation modes. The lowest frequency mode is at 1.82 µHz, and it appears to be the fundamental mode.

Efficiency of metabolic screening in childhood cardiomyopathies.

Aim: To estimate the efficiency of metabolic screening in children's cardiomyopathy.

Methods And Results: Blood glucose, lactate, pyruvate and ketone body, and carnitine levels were measured in 58 children referred with a cardiomyopathy of unknown origin. Organic acids, amino acids, oxidation of [1-14C] fatty acids to CO2 and dehydrogenation of [9,10(-3)H] fatty acids by lymphocytes were measured.

[Idiopathic peri-cerebral enlargement in infants: simple anatomical variant or hemorrhagic risk factor?].

Background: Idiopathic subarachnoid space enlargement (ISSE) is usually regarded as a benign lesion.

Case Reports: Two infants, 6 and 8 months old respectively, were hospitalized for neurological disorders revealing subdural hematoma. The first one was drowsy after an apparent life threatening event.

[Munchausen syndrome by proxy].

Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a form of child abuse presenting as a disease produced or simulated by a parent, the mother in most cases. Its diagnosis is uneasy because of its miscellaneous and unusual clinical presentation and of the misleading apparently normal attitude of the parents. Physicians may participate in the abuse by insistently looking for diagnostic and therapeutic measures, therefore contributing to the significant mortality of the syndrome.