Customisable IT tool for on-field assessments to support disaster management.

Information and technology (IT) based tools are widely used in all phases of the disaster management cycle (DMC), improving the effectiveness of the prevision-prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery phases. The availability of on-field collected data provides an answer to the need to represent the scenario in which decision-makers will intervene. In this context, disaster management experience has shown that in many cases the users of on-field assessment outcomes (i.

Situational assessment of hospital facilities for modernization purposes and resilience improvement.

Modernization of hospital facilities is one of the objectives of administrators and decision-makers of healthcare systems. Hospital facilities are both complex and critical infrastructures, because they are characterized by high level of interconnections, dynamism, technological innovation, and because they offer health and social essential services. Decision-makers have to implement modernization strategies of hospital facilities in order to guarantee a high standard of care and a resilient response during disasters and emergencies.

The use of G-CSF during first line chemotherapy adversely affects the yield of PBSC mobilization in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients.

Regardless the mobilization procedure used there is a great variability from patient to patient in the yield of CD34 collections for autologous transplantation. We analyzed retrospectively our non-Hodgkin's lymphoma survey of 60 patients harvested with G-CSF alone after a unique first line chemotherapy; 67% of patients harvested a sufficient number of CD34+ cells during the first attempt of mobilization. The charachteristics of leukaphereses procedures were the same for all the patients.

Sea-blue histiocytosis secondary to Niemann-Pick disease type B: a case report.

Sea-blue histiocytosis is a morphological finding that can be associated both with acquired conditions of increased cellular turnover and inborn errors of lipid metabolism. We report a rare case of sea-blue histiocytosis associated with a mild phenotype of Niemann-Pick disease (NPD) type B in a 44-year-old man who presented with splenomegaly and mild thrombocytopenia. Diagnosis was guided by the morphological finding in bone marrow smears of foamy and sea-blue histiocytes and confirmed by the measurement of acid lysosomal sphingomyelinase activity below normal values.

High-dose therapy in multiple myeloma: effect of positive selection of CD34+ peripheral blood stem cells on hematologic engraftment and clinical outcome.

Background And Objective: Positive selection of peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC) has been investigated in multiple myeloma (MM) with the aims of reducing plasma cell (PC) contamination of the leukaphereses and improving clinical outcome of autografted patients.

Design And Methods: In our center 39 untreated patients with stage II and III MM, younger than 65 years, started high-dose therapy consisting of 4 VAD cycles, collection of PBSC mobilized by 7 g/m(2) cyclophosphamide + G-CSF, and myeloablative treatment with 12 mg/kg busulfan plus 120 mg/m(2) melphalan. The leukaphereses from 23/39 patients (59%) were processed for positive selection of CD34(+) cells using an avidin-biotin immunoaffinity device.