"Daisy-like" crystals: A rare and unknown type of urinary crystal.

Background: Crystals are well known structures of urinary sediment, most of which are identified by the combined knowledge of crystal morphology, birefringence features at polarized light, and urine pH. In this paper, we report on a cohort of subjects whose urine contained a very rare type of crystal, which we first described in 2004 and which, based on its peculiar morphology, we define as "daisy-like crystal" (DLcr).

Methods: Reports on DLcr were spontaneously sent to our laboratory over a 10.

Automated urinalysis with expert review for incidental identification of atypical urothelial cells: An anticipated bladder carcinoma diagnosis.

Background: The most common diagnostic technique for the detection of malignant/atypical urothelial cells (m/AUC) is urinary cytology (Ucytol). Urinary sediment (Used) examination, often prescribed for asymptomatic, healthy subjects, can incidentally identify suspicious/AUC (s/AUC) in routine daily practice.

Methods: Unstained, unfixed and uncentrifuged urine samples were analyzed with an automated intelligent microscopy (AIM) system.

Long-term immune-endocrine effects of bereavement: relationships with anxiety levels and mood.

Psychological, endocrine and immune parameters were measured over a 6-month period in 14 healthy subjects who underwent an unpredictable acute emotional stress (e.g. sudden death of a loved one) compared with 14 controls who did not.

Successful immunosenescence and the remodelling of immune responses with ageing.

In recent decades, major theoretical and technological advances have been achieved in the field of immunology. These have allowed the scientific community to analyse the immune system in a much more sophisticated manner than was possible even 20 years ago. Moreover, great theoretical changes have also occurred in gerontology-in particular, the hypothesis has been put forward that ageing and diseases are two different phenomena, and that successful ageing, i.