Patient MV serological status remains an important factor for the outcome of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT). CMV seronegative patients receiving a graft from a seronegative donor have lower transplant-related mortality. In a previous study using the EBMT registry, we found that CMV seropositive patients receiving grafts from seropositive unrelated donors had improved survival and re...

  Data envelopment analysis (DEA) is a nonparametric approach to evaluate theefficiency of decision making units (DMU) using mathematical programmingtechniques. Almost, all of the previous researches in stochastic DEA have been usedthe stochastic data when the inputs and outputs are normally distributed. But, thisassumption may not be true in practice. Therefore, using a normal distribution wi...

Sir, There has been a resurgence of tuberculosis worldwide. Approximately 10-11% of extra-pulmonary tuberculosis involves joints and bones, which is approximately 1-3% of all TB cases.1 A high degree of sensitivity to this diagnosis would permit prompt institution of anti-TB therapy and prevent irreversible joint damage. A 30 years female, presented with complaints of low backache of 2 month du...

Background: Celiac disease is a common autoimmune disorder that is diagnosed based on clinical case identification, serological screening, and duodenal histology. However, the existence of mild clinical forms, such as seronegative cases with patchy atrophy and potential celiac disease, can make it difficult to determine a definitive diagnosis. The seronegative patients with celiac disease can i...

As only about 20% of sentinel node (SN) positive melanoma patients have additional non-SN lymph node involvement in the Completion Lymph Node Dissection (CLND) specimen, we tried to identify a SN positive patient group, which can be spared CLND. Micro anatomic analyses of metastatic SNs were performed to identify patient/tumor and/or SN factors predicting additional non-SN positivity as well as...

Development of live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIV) against avian strains with pandemic potential is an important public-health strategy. Either 1 or 2 10(7)-TCID(50) doses of H9N2 LAIV A/chicken/Hong Kong/G9/97 were administered intranasally to 50 adults in isolation; 41 participants were H9N2 seronegative, 24 of whom received 2 doses. The vaccine was well tolerated; vaccine shedding was ...

OBJECTIVES To determine whether patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) express humoral immunity to the small proteoglycans biglycan and decorin and to compare the response to that of patients suffering from other joint diseases. METHODS Serum and synovial fluid IgG and IgM antibody levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Antibodies to biglycan and decorin as well as to o...

Although traditional teaching emphasises that 70-80% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis have positive serological tests for rheumatoid factor, a review of the evidence suggests that the seronegative group has distinctive characteristics. In a blinded and controlled evaluation of hand and wrist films we correctly identified the serological status of 43 out of 46 patients satisfying the ARA cr...