Geographical distribution of Dermacentor marginatus and Dermacentor reticulatus in Europe.

The goal of this paper is to present up-to-date maps depicting the geographical distribution of Dermacentor species in Europe based on georeferenced sampling sites. Therefore, a dataset was compiled, resulting in 1286 D. marginatus (Sulzer, 1776) and 1209 D.

The first German map of georeferenced ixodid tick locations.

Background: Georeferenced locations of ixodid ticks are required to depict the observed distribution of species. Further, they are used as input data for species distribution models also known as niche models. The latter were applied to describe current and future (projected) tick distributions.

HLA class I and class II antibodies: monitoring before and after kidney transplantation and their clinical relevance.

Background: In search of an alternative screening technique, we compared complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) with PRA-STAT, a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).

Methods: A total of 188 pre- and posttransplant sera from 50 renal allograft recipients were tested with both methods.

Results: A significant correlation was found between both methods.

A common antidonor reactive serological pattern in patients with failed kidney regrafts.

Twenty retransplant patients were serially screened for donor-reactive antibodies (DRA). DRA appeared exclusively in patients whose grafts permanently failed and these DRA shared some common features, namely early appearance (days 4-8 post-transplant), high titers (1:10 up to more than 1:400), and broad anti-HLA specificity. This preliminary data would suggest that regrafted patients with primary graft failure represent a distinct subgroup of particularly immune responsive individuals.

Alloimmune neonatal neutropenia: clinical observations and therapeutic consequences.

Alloimmune neonatal neutropenia is a rare condition, it must be distinguished from hereditary forms of neutropenia and acquired neutropenia accompanying sepsis. In a family with four affected newborns, the degree of the disease became more and more severe from the first child to the third child. The third child died of sepsis.