COVID-19 in pregnancy by race and ethnicity: Implications for development of a vaccination strategy.

Objective: COVID-19 and associated morbidity and mortality has disproportionately affected minoritized populations. The epidemiology of spread of COVID-19 among pregnant women by race/ethnicity is not well described. Using data from a large healthcare system in California, we estimated prevalence and spread during pregnancy and recommend a vaccination approach based on minimizing adverse outcomes.

Laboratory Detection and Initial Diagnosis of Monoclonal Gammopathies.

Context.—: The process for identifying patients with monoclonal gammopathies is complex. Initial detection of a monoclonal immunoglobulin protein (M protein) in the serum or urine often requires compilation of analytical data from several areas of the laboratory.

Initial Diagnostic Workup of Acute Leukemia: Guideline From the College of American Pathologists and the American Society of Hematology.

Context: - A complete diagnosis of acute leukemia requires knowledge of clinical information combined with morphologic evaluation, immunophenotyping and karyotype analysis, and often, molecular genetic testing. Although many aspects of the workup for acute leukemia are well accepted, few guidelines have addressed the different aspects of the diagnostic evaluation of samples from patients suspected to have acute leukemia.

Objective: - To develop a guideline for treating physicians and pathologists involved in the diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of new acute leukemia samples, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, and acute leukemias of ambiguous lineage.

BCL6 expression correlates with the t(1;19) translocation in B-lymphoblastic leukemia.

Objectives: Study to date suggests that BCL6 protein expression in B-cell neoplasia predominates in germinal center-derived tumors, but less is known regarding its expression in B-lymphoblastic leukemia. Therefore, we designed a comprehensive study of BCL6 expression in B-lymphoblastic leukemia.

Methods: BCL6, LMO, and HGAL protein expression in B-lymphoblastic leukemia was investigated using immunohistochemical staining of paraffin-embedded bone marrow specimens.

Rituximab therapy for pure red cell aplasia due to anti-epoetin antibodies in a woman treated with epoetin-alfa: a case report.

Introduction: Pure red cell aplasia due to anti-epoetin antibodies is a known complication of epoetin therapy for anemia due to chronic kidney disease. This disease has not previously been well described in the setting of therapy for chronic hepatitis C virus infection. While treatment for pure red cell aplasia due to anti-epoetin antibodies is usually with immunosuppressive therapy such as calcineurin inhibition, the safety of this treatment in chronic hepatitis C virus infection is unknown.

Chromatin condensation in terminally differentiating mouse erythroblasts does not involve special architectural proteins but depends on histone deacetylation.

Terminal erythroid differentiation in vertebrates is characterized by progressive heterochromatin formation and chromatin condensation and, in mammals, culminates in nuclear extrusion. To date, although mechanisms regulating avian erythroid chromatin condensation have been identified, little is known regarding this process during mammalian erythropoiesis. To elucidate the molecular basis for mammalian erythroblast chromatin condensation, we used Friend virus-infected murine spleen erythroblasts that undergo terminal differentiation in vitro.

Medulloblastoma simulating acute myeloid leukemia: case report with a review of "myeloid antigen" expression in nonhematopoietic tissues and tumors.

Medulloblastoma is a primitive neuroectodermal tumor arising in the posterior fossa usually in the first decade of life. Systemic metastases are infrequent at diagnosis and usually occur after surgical resection or shunt placement. We report a rare case of medulloblastoma in an 18-year-old woman who presented with headache, leukopenia, and anemia.

Clinically relevant differences in prothrombin time and INR values related to blood sample collection in plastic vs glass tubes.

We compared prothrombin times (PTs) and international normalized ratios (INRs) for blood samples drawn into plastic vs glass collection tubes. We collected 60 venous blood samples into 4.5-mL glass and 2 plastic tubes (2.

Acquired Pelger-Huët anomaly in association with concomitant tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil in a liver transplant patient: a case report and review of the literature.

Pelger-Huët anomaly is a congenital or acquired abnormality of neutrophil nuclear segmentation. The acquired form may be a result of a clonal myeloid malignancy, such as myelodysplastic syndrome, or may be a secondary nonclonal change related to a variety of underlying causes, including infections and medications. We report a case of a 56-year-old man who developed acquired Pelger-Huët anomaly following liver transplantation while on the immunosuppressive agents tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil.

Erythrophagocytosis by dysplastic neutrophils in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and subsequent transformation to acute myeloid leukemia.

Erythrophagocytosis by neutrophils is a rare phenomenon in myeloid malignancies, and its clinicopathologic significance is not fully understood. We report a unique case of erythrophagocytosis by dysplastic neutrophils in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) and subsequent transformation to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Review of multiple marrow samples, both pretreatment and post-treatment, demonstrated a correlation between percentage of dysplastic neutrophils and degree of erythrophagocytosis.

Pediatric acute blastic natural killer cell leukemia.

The goal of this report is to describe a rare case of pediatric blastic natural killer (NK) cell leukemia and to compare pediatric blastic NK cell leukemia/lymphoma to other reported cases of pediatric NK cell leukemia. The patient, a 9-year-old girl, presented with acute leukemia with a phenotype similar to adult blastic NK cell leukemia/lymphoma. The blasts were agranular and expressed CD7, 45, 56, and HLA-DR, but not CD3, 11c, 13, 33, or TdT.

Invasive micropapillary carcinoma of the breast is associated with chromosome 8 abnormalities detected by comparative genomic hybridization.

Invasive micropapillary carcinoma (IMC) of the breast is a rare variant of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) characterized by unique histology and an extremely high incidence of lymph node metastases (approximately 95%). Comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) was used to characterize DNA extracted from 16 archival IMC cases to identify clonal genetic changes associated with this unique and highly metastatic cancer subtype. The average number of chromosomal alterations per IMC tumor was 7.