[Relapsing fever: an almost forgotten disease in focus again].

Introduction | Relapsing fevers, transmitted by arthropods, are rarely encountered in Germany, thus they are often not considered as differential diagnosis in febrile patients. In the last months, more than fourty cases of louse-borne relapsing fever were diagnosed in asylum seekers in Germany. Some of the patients had to be admitted to intensive care units, one patient died despite therapy.

Washing stored red blood cells in an albumin solution improves their morphologic and hemorheologic properties.

Background: Prolonged storage of red blood cells (RBCs) leads to storage lesions, which may impair clinical outcomes after transfusion. A hallmark of storage lesions is progressive echinocytic shape transformation, which can be partially reversed by washing in albumin solutions. Here we have investigated the impact of this shape recovery on biorheologic variables.

Albumin reverses the echinocytic shape transformation of stored erythrocytes.

The storage of red blood cells (RBCs) leads to storage lesions, which have a negative impact on the clinical outcome after transfusion. A hallmark of storage lesions is echinocytosis. Albumin may reverse this shape transformation, which was the topic of this study.

Interaction of injectable neurotropic drugs with the red cell membrane.

The normal red blood cell (RBC) shape is a biconcave discocyte. An intercalation of a drug in the outer half of the membrane lipid bilayer leads to echinocytosis, an intercalation in the inner half to stomatocytosis. We have used the shape transforming capacity of RBCs as a model to analyse the membrane interaction potential of various neurotropic drugs.

Incidence of acute myocardial infarction after implementation of a public smoking ban in Graubünden, Switzerland: two year follow-up.

Question Under Study: In the first year after implementation of a public smoking ban a significant decrease in the incidence of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) was observed in Graubünden. In the present study we analyzed the incidence of AMI in the second year of the ban. In addition, we investigated the contribution of smoking ban-unrelated factors to the reduced incidence of AMI incidence observed after enactment of the ban.

Stored erythrocytes have less capacity than normal erythrocytes to support primary haemostasis.

Primary haemostasis is mediated by platelet aggregation. Red blood cells (RBCs) are involved in this process. We hypothesised that stored RBCs could have less capacity to support primary haemostasis.

PLTs of blood group A1 donors express increased surface A antigen owing to apheresis and prolonged storage.

Background: In contrast to RBC transfusion, where ABO mismatch is potentially lethal, immunologic ABO matching has been considered less critical for PLTs. Nonetheless, PLTs bear ABO blood group antigens, some of them expressing very high levels.

Study Design And Methods: The expression of A antigen was investigated by flow cytometry on resting and stimulated human PLTs of 100 A and 10 O group donors, as well as on 17 PLT concentrates (PCs) after apheresis and daily during a 6-day storage, to determine possible changes in expression of A antigen on PLT surface.