[Morbus gaucher--a report of two cases].

Background: [corrected] Clinical features of inherited glucocerebrosidase deficiency were first described by Phillippe Charles Ernest Gaucher, French physician (1854-1918). Deficiency of glucocerebrosidase leads to the accumulation of the lipid glucocerebroside within the lysosomes of the monocyte macrophage system. Lipid-laden cells, known as Gaucher cells, lead to hepatosplenomegaly, multiorgan dysfunction and sceletal deterioration.

[Human ehrlichiosis].

Background: Human ehrlichiosis is a newly recognized disease. It is a tick-borne disease caused by several bacterial species of the genhus Erlichia. These are small gram-negative pleomorphic cocci, that are obligatory intracellular bacteria.

[Therapy of acute hepatitis C infection].

Background: Hepatitis C viral infection is a major cause of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The progression of acute to chronic infection occurs in 50-90% of cases. There is no standard therapy for acute HCV infection.

[Infective endocarditis of a rare etiology (Serratia marcescens)].

Infective endocarditis (IE) is a unique diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. It is a severe disease, fatal before penicillin discovery. Atypical presentations frequently led to delayed diagnosis and poor outcome.

[Actinomycosis--a multidisciplinary approach to a clinical problem].

Actinomycosis is caused by microorganisms of the Actinomyces species, found in the oral cavity, gastrointestinal and genital tract. Infection by Actimomyces species mainly causes chronic supurative disease of the oral, cervico-facial, thoracic, and abdominal regions. Clinical manifestations have been described at every level, but the disease is relatively rarely diagnosed.

[Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease].

Kikuchi-Fujimoto disease (KFD), also know as histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis, is a benign disorder characterized histologically by necrotic foci surrounded by histiocytic aggregates, and with the absence of neutrophils. KFD was recognized in Japan, where it was first described in 1972. The disease is most commonly affecting young women.

[Fulminant hepatitis B].

Fulminant hepatitis, or fulminant hepatic failure, is defined as a clinical syndrome of severe liver function impairment, which causes hepatic coma and the decrease in synthesizing capacity of liver, and develops within eight weeks of the onset of hepatitis. Several independent factors influence the survival of patients: age, the cause of liver disease, the degree and the duration of encephalopathy in relation to the onset of the disease, and the prevention of complications. Over the years many intensive treatments have been practiced.

[Multiorgan tuberculosis].

Tuberculosis is an unusual infectious disease because of the latent period between the infection and the appearance of the disease may be prolonged for many weeks, months, or years as it is in case of the secondary tuberculosis. Tuberculosis in organs other than the lung has been observed for many years but has not always been recognized as tuberculosis, and it has been given many names. Extrapulmonary tuberculosis gained new importance, because it represented a progressively greater proportion of new cases.