[Successful treatment with prednisolone for air-leak syndrome following interstitial pneumonia after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation].

A 13-year-old boy with T lymphoblastic leukemia underwent allogeneic bone marrow transplantation from an HLA-matched sibling in the second remission phase. After the dose of cyclosporine (CyA) was reduced, dyspnea appeared on Day 117. CT revealed diffuse interstitial shadows on the bilateral lungs.

Nationwide survey of bisphosphonate therapy for children with reactivated Langerhans cell histiocytosis in Japan.

Background: Several studies have suggested that Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is responsive to treatment with bisphosphonates (BPs). However the efficacy and safety of BPs therapy for childhood LCH is unknown.

Procedure: Data on children with LCH who had received BPs therapy were collected retrospectively from hospitals participating in the Japanese Pediatric Leukemia/Lymphoma Study Group.

Outcome of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia with induction failure treated by the Japan Association of Childhood Leukemia study (JACLS) ALL F-protocol.

Background: Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who fail to achieve complete remission (CR) after induction therapy (induction failure: IF) have a poor prognosis; however, there have been few prospective studies in patients with IF.

Patients And Methods: Between April 1997 and March 2005, 27 of 1,237 leukemic patients (2.2%) failed to achieve CR after four- or five-drug induction therapy.

Identification of severe combined immunodeficiency by T-cell receptor excision circles quantification using neonatal guthrie cards.

Objective: To assess the feasibility of T-cell receptor excision circles (TRECs) quantification for neonatal mass screening of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID).

Study Design: Real-time PCR based quantification of TRECs for 471 healthy control patients and 18 patients with SCID with various genetic abnormalities (IL2RG, JAK3, ADA, LIG4, RAG1) were performed, including patients with maternal T-cell engraftment (n = 4) and leaky T cells (n = 3).

Results: TRECs were detectable in all normal neonatal Guthrie cards (n = 326) at the levels of 10(4) to 10(5) copies/microg DNA.

Effect of transfusion on the venous blood lactate level in very low-birthweight infants.

Background: In recent years the blood lactate level can be easily and quickly measured with a small amount of blood, and the availability of an arterial blood lactate level has been reported as an indicator of oxygen deficit in adults. To determine whether venous blood lactate level can serve as such a marker for determining the indications for transfusion, blood lactate and hemoglobin level were monitored before and after transfusion.

Methods: The study subjects consisted of 12 very low-birthweight infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit and who had transfusion between June 2005 and June 2007.

Decreased platelet aggregation of platelet concentrate during storage recovers in the body after transfusion.

Background: Previous reports have shown that storage decrease the ability of PLTs to aggregate in the form of PLT concentrate (PC). Nevertheless, there are few reports that have studied the PLT function in blood samples obtained from recipients after PLT transfusion. In this study, this issue was addressed by examining the ability of PLTs to aggregate after being transfused into the blood stream.