Abdominal cocoon-A rare cause of intestinal obstruction.

Introduction: Abdominal cocoon syndrome is characterized by small bowel encapsulation by a fibro-collagenous membrane or "cocoon". It is a rare cause of intestinal obstruction.

Presentation Of Case: A 42-year old man presented with sub-acute intestinal obstruction.

Malrotation with transverse colon volvulus in early pregnancy: a rare cause for acute intestinal obstruction.

Colonic volvulus is a relatively uncommon cause of large bowel obstruction, accounting for 10% of colonic obstructions. Volvulus of the transverse colon is quite rare, accounting for only 4-11% of all reported cases. We report an unusual case of documented volvulus of the transverse colon in a pregnant woman with intestinal malrotation and concomitant acute intestinal obstruction by congenital bands and adhesions.

A prospective interventional study on the use of extracorporeal photopheresis in patients with bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome after lung transplantation.

Background: The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) in patients with bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS) after lung transplantation and to identify factors predicting treatment response.

Methods: The study was performed at a single center and consisted of a cohort of 1,012 lung transplant recipients (November 1989-June 2010). A total of 194 patients developed BOS after a mean of 1,293 ± 1,008 days (range, 99-4,949 days) and received established treatment, and 51 patients received additional ECP.

Dermal infiltrates of cutaneous T-cell lymphomas with epidermotropism but not other cutaneous lymphomas are abundant with langerin⁺ dendritic cells.

Background: The Langerhans cell (LC) hypothesis suggests that cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) are diseases of chronic T-cell stimulation by LC-mediated antigen presentation.

Objective: To investigate a broad panel of CTCL and cutaneous B-cell lymphomas (CBCL) for the spatial association of langerin(+) dendritic cells (DC) with T and B cells in the skin, respectively.

Methods: Fifty-five specimens of CTCL and 10 of CBCL were double-stained with monoclonal antibodies against langerin and CD3 or CD20, respectively, and evaluated by confocal laser scan microscopy.

Extracorporeal photoimmunotherapy-photopheresis.

Extracorporeal photoimmunotherapy-photopheresis (ECP) is an immunomodulatory therapy, which basically consists of separating the patient's leucocyte rich plasma from the red blood cell fraction, followed by extracorporeal administration of a photosensitizer and UVA light prior to reinfusion of the treated cells. Successful use of ECP has been reported in patients with cutaneous T cell lymphoma, the Sezary syndrome variant, graft-versus-host disease, cardiac transplant rejection and other T cell mediated/autoimmune and autoimmune diseases. Apoptosis of malignant lymphocytes and presentation of their antigens to anti-tumor CD8+ T cells with induction of an anticlonotypic response by CD8+ effector cells against the CD4+ neoplastic T cells was one of the intial mechanisms of action proposed.