Longitudinal psychosocial outcomes in two cohorts of adult survivors from childhood acute leukemia treated with or without cranial radiation.

Aim: In 1982, 60 children affected by acute lymphoblastic leukemia, treated between 1974 and 1978 with or without cranial radiation, in complete remission, and 2 years at least after stopping therapy, were submitted to a detailed psychological investigation. All those who underwent cranial radiation showed memory impairment. Twenty years after, 49 of them were still alive.

Pediatric hematology and oncology in Italy: half a century of progress, an ongoing search for improvement.

Pediatric hematology and oncology has been a well-organized specialty throughout Italy only since 1974. However, it seemed interesting and fitting to review some of the milestones lying at the base of the development of this field of medicine: the first Italian Children's Hospital created in Florence in the fifteenth century; the first textbook of pediatrics, De Morbis Puerorum, by G. Mercuriale of Bologna; the first hematologic breakthroughs in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries; and the paramount achievements in pediatric hematology and oncology over the last 50 years.

Halo ring supporting the Brown-Roberts-Wells stereotactic frame for fractionated radiotherapy.

The authors describe a new instrumentation for repositioning of the Brown-Roberts-Wells (BRW) stereotaxic system, useful for precise fractionated radiotherapy. A lucite ring is fixed to the patient's skull with four screws. Another ring, partially open, is then firmly connected co-axially to the lower part of the first one with four spacer-bars.

A new model for non-invasive, reproducible fixation of a stereotaxic frame using an orthodontic resin plate. Technical note.

The authors describe a new method for reproducible, non-invasive fixation of a stereotaxic localizing frame. A localizing system similar to that of Brown-Roberts-Wells for MR can be fixed at the base of the facial skeleton to the upper dental arch by an orthodontic resin plate. Results of trials with CT scan, advantages and disadvantages are discussed.

A rosetting test with papain-treated erythrocytes (RBC) for the detection of a minor erythrocyte population (chimerism) with different antigenic expressivity.

A rosetting test with papain-treated erythrocytes was set up and evaluated for the detection of minor erythrocyte populations (chimerism), which can be distinguished by their antigenic differences. The test, for Rh system antigenic differences, has been able to detect erythrocyte populations with a 0.5: 1000 density and a sensitivity 3-4 times as high as that of the antiglobulin test.

Mononuclear cell (MNC) concentration from the marrow harvest by automatic system.

The availability of reliable and standardizable procedures with low contamination risk and less prominent loss in MNC, would solve the existing perplexities about the systematic use of this passage. We tried to experiment Areman's et al protocol that utilizes the CS 3000 blood cell processor without gradient, making some changes and comparing the results with those achieved with the COBE 2991 on Ficoll. Some aspects should be defined, but the preliminary results are undoubtedly of great interest.

A simple, rapid method for screening hybridomas producing monoclonal antibodies to platelet proteins.

Several parameters influence the outcome of somatic cell fusions based on the Köhler and Milstein technology, and a number of steps are of critical importance, including the screening strategy. The procedure chosen, appropriate for the type of antibody required, should be rapid and sensitive, in order to clone the relevant hybrids as quickly as possible. A simple and quick dot blot-based method is reported, suitable for screening hybridoma culture supernatants in order to identify clones producing monoclonal antibodies to platelet constituents.

Effect of cytosine arabinoside on the growth and phenotypic expression of GI-ME-N, a new human neuroblastoma cell line.

Cytosine-arabinoside (ARA-C) effects on a new human neuroblastoma cell line (GI-ME-N), recently established in our laboratory, have been extensively tested. Low doses of ARA-C allowing virtually 100% cell viability induce morphological differentiation and growth inhibition; differentiated cells appear larger and flattened with elongated dendritic processes; such cells appeared within 48 hours after a dose of ARA-C as low as 0.1 microgram/ml.