Introduction: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a relevant risk factor for severe forms of COVID-19 (SARS coronavrus 2 [SARS-CoV-2] disease 2019), and calls for caution because of the high prevalence of T2DM worldwide and the high mortality rates observed in patients with T2DM who are infected with SARS-CoV-2. People with T2DM often take dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4is), glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1ras), or sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT-2is), all of which have clear anti-inflammatory effects. The study aimed to compare (i) the severity and duration of hospital stay between patients with T2DM categorized by pre-hospitalization drug class utilization and (ii) the COVID-19-related death rates of those three groups.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBACKGROUND Acute esophageal necrosis, or Gurvits syndrome, is a rare clinical process often secondary to a systemic low-flow state. It can be caused by several medical conditions, and it is thought to arise from a combination of impaired mucosal barrier and chemical and ischemic insults to the esophagus. Acute esophageal necrosis usually presents with severe complications due to delayed diagnosis and only rarely has surgical indications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn a rare case of follicluar dendritic cell sarcoma, malignant cells were isolated and cultured in the presence of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin 4 (IL-4) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha). After 14 d, 15% of neoplastic cells differentiated into myeloid-dendritic cell-like elements as demonstrated by immunological and functional characteristics. These cells showed the same cytogenetic abnormality of the malignant clone (fluorescence in situ hybridisation analysis performed on CD1a+ cells) and were able to induce allogenic T-cell proliferation in the mixed leucocyte reaction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe issue of whether, in patients affected by myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), haematological response to cytokines, particularly to recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo), is a phenomenon related to the stimulation of normal haemopoietic cells or to the differentiation of cells belonging to the abnormal clone remains an open question. To assess the pattern of response to rHuEpo treatment of bone marrow (BM) cells, we evaluated in 13 low-risk MDS patients with known cytogenetic abnormalities the number of cytogenetically normal and abnormal cells by conventional cytogenetic analysis (CCA) and by a fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique, enabling the simultaneous visualization of FISH chromosomal abnormalities in morphologically and immunophenotypically identifiable BM elements. Patients responding to rHuEpo presented a lower number of abnormal metaphases at diagnosis in comparison with patients who did not respond (22.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: Chromosome 11q22.3-23.1 deletions involving the ataxia-teleangiectasia mutated (ATM) locus (11q-/ATM+/-) are detected at diagnosis in 10-20% of cases of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and are associated with a relatively aggressive disease.
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