Treatment outcomes of adult acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in Auckland, New Zealand.

Aim: Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia/lymphoma (ALL) is a rare disease that requires an intensive chemotherapy regimen for successful treatment. This is a single-centre retrospective audit to assess the treatment outcomes in the largest ALL centre in New Zealand.

Method: Data such as survival and adverse events of patients with de novo ALL referred to Auckland City Hospital for treatment were included in this audit.

Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of Approved Combination BRAF and MEK Inhibitor Regimens for -Mutant Melanoma.

No head-to-head studies exist comparing BRAF inhibitor/MEK inhibitor (BRAFi/MEKi) combination treatments for mutant melanoma. A side-by-side analysis of randomized phase III trials is presented that evaluated dabrafenib/trametinib, vemurafenib/cobimetinib, and encorafenib/binimetinib. The baseline characteristics, efficacy, and safety were compared: COMBI-v (dabrafenib/trametinib versus vemurafenib); coBRIM (vemurafenib/cobimetinib versus vemurafenib); and COLUMBUS (encorafenib/binimetinib versus encorafenib and vemurafenib).

Pegylated feline granulocyte colony-stimulating factor increases neutrophil levels in cats.

Neutropenia can often be corrected by treatment with granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) and off-label use of commercial human G-CSF (HuG-CSF) is a commonly used treatment for neutropenic animals. However, long-term HuG-CSF treatment can be associated with adverse effects, including neutropenia. Here, feline (Fe) G-CSF was produced in Pichia pastoris, pegylated (Peg) FeG-CSF and tested in cats.

Comparison of cystatin C, creatinine and creatinine clearance vs. GFR for detection of renal failure in renal transplant patients.

Background: Serum cystatin C (Scyst) has been suggested as an alternative index of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and could be useful in renal transplant patients.

Methods: In a 60-subject cohort (40 +/- 12 years old), we compared the simultaneous measurements of Scyst, serum creatinine (Screat), creatinine clearance (Ccreat), Cockcroft and Gault's estimated clearance (Ccg) and GFR measured using inulin clearance (Cin). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed using two Cin cut-off (60 and 90 mL/min/1.

Comparison of cystatin C versus creatinine for detection of mild renal failure.

Aim: Serum cystatin C (SCyst) has been proposed as a novel indicator of GFR.

Patients And Methods: We compared SCyst, serum creatinine (SCreat) and Cockcroft and Gault's estimated clearance (CCG) using inulin clearance (Cin) as gold standard. 140 subjects (161 samples; aged 39 +/- 14; male/female: 79/82) underwent simultaneous measurements.

[Effects of amiodarone on thyroid hormonal profile. Updating based on new assay methods].

Amiodarone (A) treatment alters the levels of thyroid hormones. We investigated whether new hormonal assays are also altered by this drug. Thyroid function was determined in 21 patients chronically treated with A and in 30 controls.

Receiver operating characteristic analysis: a useful method for a comparison of the clinical relevance of two in vitro IgE tests.

Background: The objectives of this study were to demonstrate the usefulness of Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis in the definition of a positive threshold in the comparison of two in vitro tests for detecting IgE antibodies and to determine the clinical relevance of specific IgE tests according to the sensitivity and specificity determined by ROC analysis.

Methods: Specific IgE levels were compared with the use of both MATRIX (Abbott Laboratories, Chicago, Ill.) and PHADEZYM (Pharmacia, Uppsala, Sweden) tests in 109 patients: 86 allergic patients and 23 control subjects.

[A trial of stimulation with tamoxifen of progesterone nuclear receptors in patients with kidney cancer].

Stimulation of progesterone receptors synthesis by Tamoxifen was tried in 19 patients with renal cell carcinoma. No difference was found between this series and 51 controls.

Nine days post-thawing red cell conservation in a synthetic medium. Biochemical studies.

The expiration of thawed red cells (RBC) currently is 24 hours. This leads to problems in current transfusion practice, and often wastes rare and costly products. To remedy this situation, we developed a synthetic medium containing 0.

[Correlation between various lipid and apolipoprotein parameters and clinical severity in arteriopathy of the lower limbs].

We have compared the serum levels of lipids (cholesterol, triglycerides, high density lipoprotein cholesterol), apolipoproteins (Apo Al and Apo B) and two ratios (HDL cholesterol/VLDL + LDL cholesterol and Apo Al/Apo B) between a population of 180 patients with atheromatous member lesions, divided into four sub-groups with respect to clinical severity, and one of 121 controls without lesions. It seems that the most discriminative values linking to the severity of atherosclerotic manifestations are levels of Apo B, ratio Apo Al/Apo B and with a lower efficiency ratio HDL cholesterol/VLDL + LDL cholesterol.

Forensic significance of postmortem estimation of the blood cerebrospinal fluid barrier permeability.

Albumin concentration in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma was determined in 44 cadavers divided into three groups on the basis of death agony duration. The same was determined in a control group of 42 patients with no demonstrable neurological disease. Following Schuller's method, the evaluation of the blood CSF barrier permeability was based upon the rate of albumin transfer from plasma to CSF.

[Comparative study on the concentrations of steroid receptors in adenomatous and cancerous prostatic tissue].

In this preliminary study, we have determined the receptors in normal human prostatic tissue or from patients with benign prostatic hypertrophy and patients with prostatic cancer. A single point assay using a dextran-coated-charcoal treatment of cytosol is utilized. This method permits the elimination of endogenous steroids and is also useful when specimens are too small to provide the larger number of aliquots necessary for multiple steroid receptor analyses.

[Cholesterol in serum high density lipoprotein fraction (author's transl)].

The risk of atheroma can be assessed and valid epidemiological surveys can be carried out by measuring cholesterol in serum high density lipoprotein fraction (HDL) and calculating the HDL cholesterol: VLDL + LDL ratio. This was done in 39 patients free from surgically confirmed atheromatous lesions and in 51 patients presenting with such lesions. Of the four different techniques used for separation in these patients (ultracentrifugation, precipitation with heparin-Mn2+, precipitation with phosphotungstate-Mg2+ and electrophoresis), precipitation with phosphotungstate-Mg/2+ seems to be the most suitable, since there is no degradation of the HDL fraction as during electrophoresis on polyacrylamide gel, and less floculation of the supernatant after separation.

[Are serum acid phosphatase levels of diagnostic significance in prostatic cancer? (author's transl)].

The abnormal serum level of "prostatic" acid phosphatases, stresses a cellular alteration but without an own specificity allowing to certify that it is related to a prostatic affection. One could expect that during the following years thanks to the immunological and electrophoretic methods one can be able to detect in serum specific enzymes issued from a tissue which is in a definite physiopathological state.

A new method for determination of oxalate in blood serum by gas chromatography.

A method for the determination of blood oxalate by gas chromatography is described. After clarification of the serum with acetone, the oxalate was extracted, ethylated and analysed on a gas chromatograph. The concentration of oxalate in the sample was determined by comparison with the elution pattern of diethylmalonate used as an internal standard.