Full-field hemocytometry. Forty years of progress seen through Clinical and Laboratory Hematology and the International Journal of Laboratory Hematology.

The extraordinary advances in clinical hematology, biology, and oncology in the last decades would not have been possible without discovering how to identify and count the cells circulating in the blood. For centuries, scientists have used slides, counting chambers (hemocytometers), and diluting and staining solutions for this task. Then, automated hemocytometry began. This science, now linked to the daily routine of laboratory hematology, has completed an overwhelming path over a few decades. Our laboratories today operate with versatile multiparameter systems, ranging from complex single-channel instruments to bulky continuous flow machines. In terms of clinical information obtained from a simple routine blood test, the full exploitation of their potential depends on the operators' imagination and courage. A comprehensive review of the scientific publications that have accompanied the development of hemocytometry from the 1950s to today would require entire volumes. More than seven hundred contributions that authors worldwide have published in Clinical and Laboratory Haematology until 2007 and then the International Journal of Laboratory Hematology are summarized. Such journals have represented and hopefully will continue to represent the privileged place of welcome for future scientific research in hemocytometry. Improved technologies, attention to quality, new reagents and electronics, information technology, and scientist talent ensure a more profound and deeper knowledge of cell properties: current laboratory devices measure and count even minor immature or pathological cell subpopulations. Full-field hemocytometry includes the analysis of nonhematic fluids, digital adds to the microscope, and the development of effective point-of-care devices.

Historical review: a history of the British Journal of Haematology.

The British Journal of Haematology has now been in existence for 65 years. In this time it has served the international community as well as British haematology and has become increasingly international in its outlook. Its changing content has mirrored the changes in haematology over more than six decades, particularly with an increasing emphasis on haematological neoplasms and their treatment.

Kostmann's disease or severe hereditary neutropenia-the man behind the syndrome.

Seventy years ago, the Swedish pediatrician Rolf Kostmann (1909-1982) was the first to report on a previous unknown lethal hereditary neutropenia in infants, Kostmann's disease. This essay presents the man behind the syndrome rather than focusing on the disease itself.

Contribuciones de Moisés y Alejandro Chediak a la Inmunología, la Hematología y el Laboratorio Clínico en Cuba / Contributions of Moises and Alejandro Chediak to Immunology, Hematology and Clinical Laboratory in Cuba

Los doctores Moisés y Alejandro Chediak Ahuayda, cubanos de ascendencia libanesa, realizaron importantes contribuciones a la Inmunología y otras ciencias médicas. El doctor Moisés Chediak fue director del Laboratorio Clínico Central del Hospital General Calixto García desde 1940, año en que fundó el primer banco de sangre de Cuba. Llegó a ser Profesor Auxiliar de Microscopía y Química Clínica de la Universidad de la Habana. Entre sus artículos se destacan el primer caso de anemia de Cooley en un niño en Cuba, así como el reporte de una nueva forma de inmunodeficiencia primaria conocida como síndrome de Béguez-Chediak-Higashi. Participó en numerosos eventos en América, Europa y Asia, y fue un miembro reconocido de las Sociedades Cubanas de Patología Clínica, Microbiología y de Pediatría, así como de organizaciones internacionales. Alejandro Chediak llamó la atención de la comunidad científica al desarrollar un método que solo requería de una gota de sangre en papel para el diagnóstico serológico de la sífilis. La microrreacción de Chediak fue ampliamente evaluada, adoptada y modificada en Estados Unidos, Argentina, Alemania, Polonia, México, Chile, Brasil y Francia. Diseñó un dispositivo útil para diversas técnicas de laboratorio, como la aglutinación de grupos sanguíneos, el cual fue patentado en Cuba y Estados Unidos. Fue profesor de Física Biológica de la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de La Habana. Los hermanos Chediak Ahuayda, quienes se formaron y alcanzaron sus más importantes resultados profesionales en nuestro país, ocupan un lugar destacado en la historia de la medicina cubana del siglo XX(AU)

Doctors Moises and Alejandro Chediak Ahuayda, whose were born in Cuba and had Lebanese ascendants, made important contributions to Immunology and other medical sciences. Doctor Moises Chediak was director of the Central Clinical Laboratory of the General Calixto Garcia Hospital from 1940, the same year when he founded the first blood bank in Cuba. He was Associate Professor of Microscopy and Clinical Chemistry at the University of Havana. The first report in Cuba of a case of Cooley's anemia in a child, and a new form of a primary immunodeficiency, known as Beguez-Chediak-Higashi syndrome, were among his most relevant papers. He participated in many congressesin America, Europe and Asia; he was an outstanding member of the Cuban Societies of Clinical Pathology, Microbiology and Pediatrics, as well as various international organizations. Alejandro Chediak got the attention of the scientific community when he developed a method that required only a drop of blood in a paper for the serological diagnostics of syphilis. Chediak's microrreaction was widely evaluated, adopted and modified in the United States, Argentina, Germany, Poland, Mexico, Chile, Brazil and France. He designed a device useful for many laboratory assays, including blood group agglutination, patented in Cuba and the United States. He was professor of Biological Physics at the Faculty of Medicineof theUniversity of Havana. The brothers Chediak Ahuayda, who were trained and obtained their most important professional achievements in our country, have a relevant place in the history of Cuban medicine during XX century(AU)

Was Thomas Wharton Jones FRS, assistant to the infamous Dr Knox, the first to recognise the blood eosinophil?

Thomas Wharton Jones (1808-91), described as a 'genius' by his famous pupil Thomas Henry Huxley, was an Edinburgh medical graduate. At the age of 19 years he was appointed anatomy demonstrator to the infamous Dr Robert Knox so unwittingly becoming caught up in the Burke and Hare scandal. Escaping to Glasgow, and then to Cork and London, Jones eventually became an outstanding physiologist and ophthalmologist. His seminal observations included scholarly treatises on the vasculature in inflammation together with descriptions of the contractile movement of white blood cells, as well as studies on regeneration and repair, astigmatism and retinitis pigmentosa. He was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1840. One of his seminal contributions was his detailed description of 'granular cells' in the blood of a large number of animal species, including man. His illustrations suggest strongly these were eosinophils, predating Paul Erhlich's definitive studies (using aniline dyes) by 33 years. In later life he was found destitute in his London home and 'rescued' by friends and colleagues. William Gladstone was persuaded to give Jones a civil list pension. He lived out the rest of his life in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight.

Pediatric sickle cell disease: past successes and future challenges.

Once a fatal disease of childhood, more than 95% of patients born today with sickle cell disease (SCD) in developed countries are expected to survive into adulthood, largely because of improvements in supportive and preventive care (newborn screening, penicillin prophylaxis, transcranial Doppler (TCD) screening). Hydroxyurea (HU) therapy, the only oral medication currently available to prevent SCD complications, has become more widespread over the past 20 y. The NHLBI recommends that HU be offered to all patients with HbSS beginning at 9 mo of age, and the recently published Abnormal TCD with Transfusions Changing to HU (TWiTCH) trial has shown HU as an acceptable alternative to transfusion therapy for patients at high risk of stroke. While hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) is a curative option for SCD, less than 25% of patients have a suitable donor. Alternative stem cell sources from unrelated donors and haplo-identical donors are currently under investigation as are gene therapy trials. This review will focus on early efforts to elucidate SCD pathophysiology as well as supportive and preventive care improvements. Findings from recent multi-center studies (Silent Infarct Transfusion (SIT) Trial and TWiTCH) will be summarized. Finally, HSCT trials and gene therapy will be reviewed.

2016: medio centenario del Instituto de Hematología e Inmunología / 2016: half a century of the Institute of Hematology and Immunology

El primero de diciembre de 2016 arribará a sus cincuenta años de fructífera existencia el Instituto de Hematología e Inmunología (IHI), surgido por voluntad del Ministerio de Salud Pública de la República de Cuba con el objetivo de realizar las investigaciones biomédicas en sus ramas, garantizar la cobertura nacional de especialistas y brindar atención médica de alta calificación a nuestro pueblo en sus especialidades. El IHI inició sus actividades con solamente 4 médicos, 2 técnicos, 2 enfermeras, y escasos recursos proporcionados por los hospitales que le han servido de sede: General Docente Enrique Cabrera y Pediátrico Docente William Soler , ya que, contrario a la mayoría de las especialidades médicas en Cuba, la Hematología surgió durante el proceso revolucionario y se desarrolló plenamente con la creación del instituto. La Inmunología, como ciencia nueva en aquella época, comenzó también a desarrollarse a raíz de la creación del instituto...