Rapid and sensitive point-of-care detection of Orthopoxviruses by ABICAP immunofiltration.

Background: The rapid and reliable detection of infectious agents is one of the most challenging tasks in scenarios lacking well-equipped laboratory infrastructure, like diagnostics in rural areas of developing countries. Commercially available point-of-care diagnostic tests for emerging and rare diseases are particularly scarce.

Results: In this work we present a point-of-care test for the detection of Orthopoxviruses (OPV).

Increase of interleukin-18 serum levels after engraftment correlates with acute graft-versus-host disease in allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.

Purpose: Acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) is a constant and severe complication after allogeneic stem cell transplantation regularly involving skin, liver, gut, and lungs. The cytokine interleukin-18 (IL-18) has been shown to increase in patients who develop acute GvHD after bone marrow tranplantation (BMT).

Materials And Methods: Here, we measured IL-18 serum levels after peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) at several characteristic time points in 24 patients (median age 46 years).