Prevalence of IgM and IgG antibodies to West Nile virus among blood donors in an affected area of north-eastern Italy, summer 2009.

Following reports of West Nile neuroinvasive disease in the north-eastern area of Italy in 2009, all blood donations dating from the period between 1 August and 31 October 2009 in the Rovigo province of the Veneto region were routinely checked to exclude those with a positive nucleic acid test for West Nile virus (WNV). Only one of 5,726 blood donations was positive (17.5 per 100,000 donations; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.4­97.3). In addition, a selection of 2,507 blood donations collected during the period from 20 July to 15 November 2009 were screened by ELISA for IgG and IgM antibodies against WNV. A positive result was received for 94 of them. The positive sera were further evaluated using immunofluorescence and plaque reduction neutralisation test (PRNT), in which only 17 sera were confirmed positive. This corresponds to a prevalence of 6.8 per 1,000 sera (95% CI: 4.0­10.9). In a case-control study that matched each of the 17 PRNT-positive sera with four negative sera with the same date of donation and same donation centre, we did not find a significant association with age and sex of the donor; donors who worked mainly outdoors were significantly more at risk to have a positive PRNT for WNV.

[Severe hyperlactacidemia in 2 children treated for malignant tumors. Role of vitamin B1]. / Hyperlactacidémie sévère chez deux enfants traités pour tumeur maligne. Rôle de la vitamine B1.

Two cases of children treated for malignant tumor and who developed a severe lacticacidosis are reported. A 2 year-old girl and a 8 year-old boy were treated with chemotherapy, irradiation and multiple surgical procedures for nephroblastoma and lymphoma respectively. These two malnourished patients, under exclusive parenteral nutrition for two weeks without vitamin intakes, suddenly developed neurological, cardiovascular and digestive symptoms, associated with cytopenia and lacticacidosis. Injection of vitamin B1 only corrected these abnormalities within a few hours, proving the role of thiamine deficiency as the cause of the symptoms.

Complicaciones periodontales en las leucemias en edad pediátrica / Periodontal complications in leukemia in pediatric old

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar las complicaciones odonto-periodontales que se manifiestan en los pacientes pediátricos afectados por leucemias. En él se valora positivamente la intervención del odontólogo durante las fases iniciales de las leucemias, por las manifestaciones periodontales y neurológicas que se asocian a ellas, así como por las complicaciones periodontales y alteraciones odonto-esqueléticas originadas por las terapias antiblásticas. Asimismo se hace una valoración de los tratamientos odontológicos para estos pacientes y a su educación en el ámbito higiénico-preventivo oral que beneficia el pronóstico de estos pacientes. Por último los autores enseñan los percentiles patológicos registrados en el período de observación (18 meses) (AU)

The aim of this work is to assess tooth-periodontal complications of pediatric patients affected by leukemia. Importance will be addressed to the dentist role in the first steps of the disease with particular attention to the diagnosis of periodontal and neurologic associated syndromes. Authors talk about periodontal complication and dental-skeletal alterations linked to antiblastic therapy , too. They expose how and what is done for these patients in the hemato-oncology dentistry public structure where they play an active role. Finally, they expose the pathologic percentiles recorded(18 months period) (AU)