Filiz Odabasi Seeborg,* Hannah Gay, Lorenz M. Schmiege III, David Bernard, and William T. Shearer Section of Allergy & Immunology, Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, and Department of Pathology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 77030; Pediatric Infectious Disease Division, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi 39213; and Department of Pa...

BACKGROUND Renal disease associated with paraproteinemias is classically predicated upon pathologic paraprotein deposition in the kidney. However, growing evidence suggests that paraproteins may be able to systemically activate complement or neutrophils to drive renal damage. This may provide an alternative pathologic mechanism for renal injury in rare cases. CASE REPORT We report a case of a...

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignancy characterized by monoclonal paraproteinemia and tissue plasmocytosis. In advanced MM cytopenia and osteopathy may occur. Although several effective treatment strategies have been developed in recent years, there is still a need to identify new drug targets and to develop more effective therapies for patients with advanced MM. We examined the effects of 15 t...

MATERIAL AND METHODS In a 30-year period in a single institution, 23 cases of systemic immunoglobulin light chain amyloidosis (AL) were identified, within a group of 1,388 individuals with some form of a hematological malignancy. RESULTS AL is 14 times less frequent in Mexico than in Caucasians and it represents 15% of all monoclonal gammopathies. Median age was 57 years (range 39-98); there ...

Intraepidermal IgA pustulosis IgA paraproteinemia HIV infection Dr. José M de Moragas, Department of Dermatology, Hospital de la Sta. Creu i St. Pau, C/St. Antoni M Claret, 167, E-08025 Barcelona (Spain) Intraepidermal IgA pustulosis (IEAP) is a term coined by Wallach [1] characterized by a pustular eruption similar to the subcorneal pustulosis of Sneddon and Wilkinson, but it differs from this...

BACKGROUND For the serological diagnosis of systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases, a two-tier approach starting with sensitive antinuclear antibody (ANA) detection by indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) on HEp-2 cells followed by characterization of positive findings with different immunoassays is recommended. To overcome drawbacks of this approach, we developed a novel technique allowing the co...

Background. Xanthomas are well circumscribed lesions in the connective tissue of the skin, tendons or fasciae that predominantly consist of foam cells; these specific cells are formed from macrophages as a result of an excessive uptake of low density lipoprotein (LDL) particles and their oxidative modification. Results. Until recently, xanthelasma was considered to be only a cosmetic lesion; ho...

BACKGROUND Elizabethkingia miricola is a rare Gram-negative bacterium found in water and clinical specimens. Typical culturing methods often misidentify Elizabethkingia spp. as Flavobacterium or Chryseobacterium. Although diagnosis is based on culturing samples taken from sterile sites, such as blood, a proper identification of this bacterium requires an expertise that goes beyond the capabilit...

E-selectin, L-selectin, and P-selectin are related cell adhesion molecules that bind via their lectin domains to sialyl Lewis x and related carbohydrate determinants. Reports have indicated that sulfated glycolipids and polysaccharides also bind selectins. To extend these findings, we compared binding of selectin-IgG chimeras to immobilized sulfated and sialylated glycosphingolipids. E-, L-, an...