Chagas disease and transfusion medicine: a perspective from non-endemic countries.

In the last decades, increasing international migration and travel from Latin America to Europe have favoured the emergence of tropical diseases outside their "historical" boundaries. Chagas disease, a zoonosis endemic in rural areas of Central and South America represents a clear example of this phenomenon. In the absence of the vector, one of the potential modes of transmission of Chagas disease in non-endemic regions is through blood and blood products.

Plasma for fractionation in a public setting: cost analysis from the perspective of the third-party payer.

Background: In Italy, within the legal mandate to pursue national self-sufficiency of plasma-derived medical products, the Regions are starting to organise trade to offset imbalances between need and availability. It is, therefore, necessary to determine the full cost to the Regions of plasma collection and handling. Here we report an analysis of plasma production costs in the Department of Transfusion Medicine of Verona Province, Veneto Region.

The use of banked skin in the Burns Centre of Verona.

Background: The use of glycerol and subsequent research enabling the conservation of tissues over time have led to the establishment and development of tissue banks, first in the USA and then in Europe. The Verona Tissue Bank was instituted in 2003 as the Regional Centre for the storage of skin and bone, adding to the already existing Italian banks at Turin, Milan, Cesena and Siena. This retrospective study analyses the use of banked skin (autologous and allogeneic grafts) from April 2003 (date of starting activity) to December 2007, in 171 patients with burns and four with necrotising fasciitis at the Burns Centre of Verona.

Evaluation of cryopreserved donor skin viability: the experience of the regional tissue bank of Verona.

Background: Allogeneic human skin removed from cadaveric donors is the covering of choice for deep burns, since it accelerates the re-epithelialisation of autologous skin. In this study we evaluated the cellular viability of cryopreserved skin at the regional tissue bank of Verona (Italy).

Methods: From 1st June 2007 to 30th September 2007, tests of cutaneous cell viability were carried out on 21 consecutive skin donors using the MTT (tetrazolium salt) method on samples prior to freezing and on thawed samples after a period of cryopreservation.

Adverse reactions in blood and apheresis donors: experience from two Italian transfusion centres.

Background: Blood and apheresis donations are widely considered to be safe with a low incidence of adverse reactions and injuries; however, data reported in the medical literature on the prevalence of adverse events in donors and studies on the predictive risk factors for donor reactions are limited and contradictory.

Methods: From January 2002 to December 2006 we recorded every adverse reaction verified during 240,596 consecutive blood and apheresis donations (183,855 homologous whole blood donations, 6,669 autologous whole blood donations, 38,647 plasmapheresis, 2,641 plateletpheresis and 8,784 multicomponent donations) at the Italian Transfusion Centres of Verona and Ragusa,.

Results: Using a special, pre-arranged form within the quality system, a total of 686 adverse reactions (related to 0.

Evaluation of the Roche cobas s 201 system and cobas TaqScreen multiplex test for blood screening: a European multicenter study.

Background: The Roche cobas TaqScreen test, an automated, multiplex nucleic acid test for blood screening for hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA, hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) groups M and O, and HIV-2 RNA, on the cobas s 201 platform, was evaluated by six European blood screening laboratories.

Study Design And Methods: The 95 percent limit of detection (LOD) of the cobas TaqScreen test for HBV, HCV, and HIV-1, using dilutions of the WHO International Standards, were evaluated. The clinical performance was determined by testing between 2000 to 6000 routine donor samples.

Fresh frozen homologous bone in oral surgery: case reports.

Intraoral bone defects may be treated using autologous grafts, homologous grafts, heterologous grafts or synthetic products. Autologous bone is now considered the gold standard for bone grafting procedures. Homologous fresh frozen bone, provided by bone banks, is frequently utilized by orthopaedic surgeons because it is considered a safe material from immunological and viral points of view.

Association study of dysbindin gene with clinical and outcome measures in a representative cohort of Italian schizophrenic patients.

There is evidence suggesting that Dysbindin (DTNBP1) is a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia in Caucasian, Chinese, and Japanese populations. We sought to determine if dysbindin was associated with schizophrenia and its symptoms in a representative group of schizophrenic patients from a Community-Based Mental Health Service (CMHS) in Verona, Italy. A prevalence cohort of schizophrenic patients (n = 141) was assessed at baseline and then 3 and 6 years later.

Mesenchymal stem cells for bone, cartilage, tendon and skeletal muscle repair.

Literature data concerning the biology and differentiation potential of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have become huge in less than 10 years, although some of these data still remain contradictory. MSCs seem to be a very promising tool for cell therapy because of their peculiar characteristics, which mimic partially those of embryonic stem cells, but with some advantages in terms of availability, expandability, transplantability, and ethical implications. We discuss here the potential use of MSCs in degenerative or inflammatory diseases involving bone, cartilage, tendon and muscle tissues, on the basis of the experimental evidence.