Etiological analysis of discarded measles in the context of a measles outbreak among a highly immunized population.

Background: Measles can lead to serious complications and remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In this study we aimed to assess the etiological diagnosis of discarded measles cases in the context of an outbreak among a highly immunized population.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study of discarded measles cases from an outbreak that occurred from October 2006 to July 2007 in Catalonia.

A combined effort of 11 laboratories in the WHO African region to improve quality of Buruli ulcer PCR diagnosis: The "BU-LABNET".

Buruli ulcer is one of the 20 neglected tropical diseases in the world. This necrotizing hypodermitis is a chronic debilitating disease caused by an environmental Mycobacterium ulcerans. At least 33 countries with tropical, subtropical and temperate climates have reported Buruli ulcer in African countries, South America and Western Pacific regions.

[Primary isoniazid preventive therapy : A strategy still relevant in the era of test and treat ; literature review].

Background: Tuberculosis remains a public health threat responsible as recently as 2018 for more than one million deaths. Chemoprophylaxis with isoniazid is one of the strategies implemented to control the disease. Although it is not yet widely prescribed, its utilization raises additional questions in the "test and treat" era of for anti-retroviral therapy.

[Epidemiological profile and diagnostic and evolutionary features of TB patients at the Diagnostic Centre for Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases in Settat, Morocco].

Introduction: tuberculosis is a public health problem in Morocco. This study aims to examine the epidemiological profile as well as the evolutionary and diagnostic features of tuberculosis in Settat, Morocco.

Methods: we conducted a retrospective descriptive and analytical study of data from the medical records of TB patients managed at the Diagnostic Centre for Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases in Settat, Morocco from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2019.

Experimental and genetic evidence for the impact of and expression and variation in inflammatory bowel disease.

Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) resulting from the interaction of multiple environmental, genetic and immunological factors. and are paralogs encoding lymphocyte co-receptors involved in fine-tuning intracellular signals delivered upon antigen-specific recognition, microbial pattern recognition and cell adhesion. While and expression and variation is known to influence some immune-mediated inflammatory disorders, their role in IBD remains unclear.

Persistence of antiphospholipid antibodies over time and its association with recurrence of clinical manifestations: A longitudinal study from a single centre.

Purpose: To analyze the antiphospholipid antibody (aPL) persistence over time in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) and its association with clinical recurrence and to identify predictors of aPL persistence over time.

Patients And Methods: 200 patients with a diagnosis of APS and at least three follow-up aPL determinations were included. Persistent aPL profile was defined as the presence of lupus anticoagulant (LAC) and/or IgG/IgM anticardiolipin (aCL) and/or IgG/IgM anti-β2 glycoprotein-I (aβ2GPI) (> 99th percentile) antibodies in at least 66% of follow-up measurements.

Ligand-based CAR-T cell: Different strategies to drive T cells in future new treatments.

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-based therapies are presented as innovative treatments for multiple malignancies. Despite their clinical success, there is scientific evidence of the limitations of these therapies mainly due to immunogenicity issues, toxicities associated with the infusion of the product, and relapses of the tumor. As a result, novel approaches are appearing aiming to solve and/or mitigate the harmful effects of CAR-T therapies.

CD6 deficiency impairs early immune response to bacterial sepsis.

CD6 is a lymphocyte-specific scavenger receptor expressed on adaptive (T) and innate (B1a, NK) immune cells, which is involved in both fine-tuning of lymphocyte activation/differentiation and recognition of bacterial-associated molecular patterns (i.e., lipopolysaccharide).

Insights into the Pharmacogenetics of Tacrolimus Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics.

The influence of pharmacogenetics in tacrolimus pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics needs further investigation, considering its potential in assisting clinicians to predict the optimal starting dosage and the need for a personalized adjustment of the dose, as well as to identify patients at a high risk of rejection, drug-related adverse effects, or poor outcomes. In the past decade, new pharmacokinetic strategies have been developed to improve personalized tacrolimus treatment. Several studies have shown that patients with tacrolimus doses C0/D < 1 ng/mL/mg may demonstrate a greater incidence of drug-related adverse events and infections.

Fecal Calprotectin for Small Bowel Crohn's Disease: Is It a Cutoff Issue?

(1) Background: Fecal calprotectin (FC) correlates well with colonic inflammatory activity of Crohn’s disease (CD); data about relation of FC and small bowel (SB) lesions are still contradictory. The main aim was to analyze the relationship between FC levels and SB inflammatory activity in patients with established or suspected Crohn’s disease, assessed by small bowel capsule endoscopy (SBCE) or magnetic resonance enterography (MRE). (2) Methods: Two cohorts of patients were included: 1.

End-diastolic velocity mediates the relationship between renal resistive index and the risk of death.

Objective: Renal resistive index predicts the risk of death in many populations but the mechanism linking renal resistive index and death remains elusive. Renal resistive index is derived from end-diastolic velocity (EDV) and peak systolic velocity (PSV). However, the predictive value of EDV or PSV considered alone is unknown.

Asynchronous online learning as a key tool to adapt to new educational needs in radiology during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The risk of contagion and the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced a change in teaching methodologies in radiology. New knowledge about the disease that was being acquired on a daily basis needed to be rapidly spread worldwide, but the restrictions imposed made it difficult to share this information. This paper describes the methodology applied to design and launch a practice-based course on chest X-ray suggestive of COVID-19 right after the pandemic started, and aims to determine whether asynchronous online learning tools for radiology education are useful and acceptable to general practitioners and other medical personnel during a pandemic.

Incidence and factors predictive of recurrent thrombosis in people with non-cirrhotic portal vein thrombosis.

Background & Aims: Clinical guidelines do not recommend long-term anticoagulation in non-cirrhotic splanchnic vein thrombosis (NC-SVT) without underlying thrombophilia because it is assumed that there is a very low risk of recurrent thrombosis (RT). Our first aim was to describe the incidence of RT in people with NC-SVT without an indication for long-term anticoagulation. The second aim was to identify RT risk factors and afterwards verify them in a validation cohort.

Identification of Potentially Tolerated Fish Species by Multiplex IgE Testing of a Multinational Fish-Allergic Patient Cohort.

Background: Although recent studies indicated that many fish-allergic patients may safely consume certain fish species, no clinical guidelines are available for identification of the exact species tolerated by specific patients.

Objective: To investigate whether multiplex immunoglobulin E (IgE) testing reveals potentially tolerated fish through absence of IgE to parvalbumin (PV) and extracts from specific species.

Methods: Sera from 263 clinically well-defined fish-allergic patients from Austria, China, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway, and Spain were used in a research version of the ALEX multiplex IgE quantification assay.

Functional Brain Connectivity Prior to the COVID-19 Outbreak Moderates the Effects of Coping and Perceived Stress on Mental Health Changes: A First Year of COVID-19 Pandemic Follow-up Study.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to investigate the psychological impact of a global major adverse situation. Our aim was to examine, in a longitudinal prospective study, the demographic, psychological, and neurobiological factors associated with interindividual differences in resilience to the mental health impact of the pandemic.

Methods: We included 2023 healthy participants (age: 54.

Predictive value of the adjusted Global Anti-Phospholipid Syndrome Score on clinical recurrence in APS patients: a longitudinal study.

Objective: To assess the effect of the average adjusted global APS score (aGAPSS) over time on recurrence of clinical manifestations in APS patients through a retrospective longitudinal study.

Material And Methods: The study included 200 patients with APS. The aGAPSS was calculated for each patient at baseline and on a yearly basis for either up to 6 years (minimum 3 years) or just before the clinical event in patients who experienced clinical recurrence.

Analytical validation of a portable human Accu-Chek glucometer in honeybee hemolymph.

Glucose and trehalose are the main energy sources used by honeybees () for daily activities. However, there is no validated point-of-care method to reliably measure both sugars. We performed an analytical validation of a portable human glucometer (Accu-Chek; Roche) for glucose measurement in honeybee hemolymph compared to a reference method (GluCH, UniCel DxC 600; Beckman Coulter).

Innate immune response to peritoneal bacterial infection.

Spontaneous and secondary peritoneal infections, mostly of bacterial origin, easily spread to cause severe sepsis. Cellular and humoral elements of the innate immune system are constitutively present in peritoneal cavity and omentum, and play an important role in peritonitis progression and resolution. This review will focus on the description of the anatomic characteristics of the peritoneal cavity and the composition and function of such innate immune elements under both steady-state and bacterial infection conditions.

Chronic cerebral blood flow alterations in traumatic brain injury and sports-related concussions.

Primary Objective: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and sports-related concussion (SRC) may result in chronic functional and neuroanatomical changes. We tested the hypothesis that neuroimaging findings (cerebral blood flow (CBF), cortical thickness, and H-magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy (MRS)) were associated to cognitive function, TBI severity, and sex.

Research Design: Eleven controls, 12 athletes symptomatic following ≥3SRCs and 6 patients with moderate-severe TBI underwent MR scanning for evaluation of cortical thickness, brain metabolites (MRS), and CBF using pseudo-continuous arterial spin labeling (ASL).

Towards Control and Oversight of SARS-CoV-2 Diagnosis and Monitoring through Multiplexed Quantitative Electroanalytical Immune Response Biosensors.

The development of versatile and sensitive biotools to quantify specific SARS-CoV-2 immunoglobulins in SARS-CoV-2 infected and non-infected individuals, built on the surface of magnetic microbeads functionalized with nucleocapsid (N) and in-house expressed recombinant spike (S) proteins is reported. Amperometric interrogation of captured N- and S-specific circulating total or individual immunoglobulin (Ig) isotypes (IgG, IgM, and IgA), subsequently labelled with HRP-conjugated secondary antibodies, was performed at disposable single or multiplexed (8×) screen-printed electrodes using the HQ/HRP/HO system. The obtained results using N and in-house expressed S ectodomains of five SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (including the latest Delta and Omicron) allow identification of vulnerable populations from those with natural or acquired immunity, monitoring of infection, evaluation of vaccine efficiency, and even identification of the variant responsible for the infection.

CoVITEST: A Fast and Reliable Method to Monitor Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Specific T Cells From Whole Blood.

Cellular and humoral immune responses are essential for COVID-19 recovery and protection against SARS-CoV-2 reinfection. To date, the evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 immune protection has mainly focused on antibody detection, generally disregarding the cellular response, or placing it in a secondary position. This phenomenon may be explained by the complex nature of the assays needed to analyze cellular immunity compared with the technically simple and automated detection of antibodies.

Long-Term Responders After Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation in Multiple Myeloma.

Introduction: Multiple myeloma (MM) is considered an incurable hematological neoplasm. For transplant-eligible patients, initial treatment includes an induction phase followed by an autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). Despite the introduction of several drugs in the past years, relapses still occur.