Reception Test of Petals for the End Cap TEC+ of the CMS Silicon Strip Tracker

The silicon strip tracker of the CMS experiment has been completed and was inserted into the CMS detector in late 2007. The largest sub system of the tracker are its end caps, comprising two large end caps (TEC) each containing 3200 silicon strip modules. To ease construction, the end caps feature a modular design: groups of about 20 silicon modules are placed on sub-assemblies called petals and these self-contained elements are then mounted onto the TEC support structures. Each end cap consists of 144 such petals, which were built and fully qualified by several institutes across Europe. Fro

Integration of the End Cap TEC+ of the CMS Silicon Strip Tracker

The silicon strip tracker of the CMS experiment has been completed and inserted into the CMS detector in late 2007. The largest sub-system of the tracker is its end cap system, comprising two large end caps (TEC) each containing 3200 silicon strip modules. To ease construction, the end caps feature a modular design: groups of about 20 silicon modules are placed on sub-assemblies called petals and these self-contained elements are then mounted into the TEC support structures. Each end cap consists of 144 petals, and the insertion of these petals into the end cap structure is referred to as TEC integration. The two end caps were integrated independently in Aachen (TEC+) and at CERN (TEC--). This note deals with the integration of TEC+, describing procedures for end cap integration and for quality control during testing of integrated sections of the end cap and presenting results from the testing

Hypothyroidism and arthritis during interferon therapy.

The development of autoantibodies during interferon therapy is frequent, but clinical symptoms of autoimmune disease are uncommon. We report on a female patient who developed arthritis with strongly positive antinuclear factor (ANA) and autoimmune thyroiditis while being treated with alpha 2b interferon (IFN) for chronic myelocytic leukaemia (CML). The arthritis subsided promptly after discontinuation of IFN and initiation of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs

High-dose cytotoxic therapy with autologous bone marrow or peripheral blood progenitor cell transplantation in malignant lymphomas.

The present paper is an attempt to assess the efficiency of high-dose cytotoxic therapy followed by autologous bone marrow or peripheral progenitor cell rescue with hematopoietic growth factor support given in a group of 27 patients (16 men, 11 women) at the Department of Hematology of the Mont Godinne University Clinics, mainly in the same interval 1990-1994. The reasons for introducing such a therapy in these patients (6 with Hodgkin's disease, 14 with intermediate or high grade, aggressive non Hodgkin lymphomas and 7 with low grade follicular non Hodgkin lymphomas) were relapse of disease after conventional therapy (11 cases), resistance to initial therapy (5 patients) or because of histologically proven transformation to a more aggressive form (one case); in 10 patients with extended, poor prognosis forms, the procedure was used as part of the first line therapy. The conditioning high dose chemotherapy was given according to various regimens, most of them containing Cyclophosphamide, BCNU and Etoposide, with or without total body irradiation. In 14 patients, bone marrow (BM) graft was used, while peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC) were infused in the remaining 13 patients. The number of infused granulocyte-macrophage colony forming units (CFU-GM) ranged between 7,650 and 3,900,000/kg, with a mean value of 461,000/kg. The median time intervals required to reach an absolute neutrophil count > 500/microliter, a platelet count > 50,000/microliter and a hematocrit > 30% were 13 days, 20 days and 23 days respectively. Growth factors (GM-CSF and G-CSF) and PBPC use shortened the time for neutrophil recovery as well as neutropenia-related complications. No procedure-related death was observed and complete remission was achieved in 22 cases (81.4%); after a mean follow-up of 32.6 months, 14 patients (55.5%) are alive and free of disease, while in 7 patients (31% of the complete responders) relapse occurred at an average time interval of 8.2 months since the procedure

Clearance kinetics of CD34+ cells from peripheral blood: an independent predictor of hematologic recovery after high-dose chemotherapy and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

We measured the concentration of CD34+ cells in peripheral blood (PB) (1/2) h prior to and (1/2), 1, 3, 6, and 12 h following hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) infusion in 34 breast cancer patients treated with high-dose chemotherapy (HDC). The decrease in these concentrations over time enabled us to determine the clearance kinetics of CD34+ cells from PB. The absolute number of CD34+ cells in PB generally peaked at (1/2) h after infusion, then rapidly declined from 1 to 3 h post infusion and continued to fall until 12 h post transplant, but more slowly. In univariate analysis, CD34+cells/kg infused, CFU-GM/kg infused, the CD34+ count at (1/2) h, and the 12-h clearance of CD34+ cells from PB were predictors of hematologic recovery, as were each of the two phases of clearance when the slope was divided into rapid and slow phases (from (1/2) to 3 and from 3 to 12 h post transplant, respectively). We then stratified our population by the number of CD34+ cells/kg infused. In group 1, patients received 7.5 x 10(6) CD34+ cells/kg. After adjusting for CD34+ cells injected, age, and purged or unpurged graft in multivariate analysis, the 12 h clearance remained a predictor of hematologic recovery in group 1. In addition, the second phase of clearance (from 3 to 12 h after infusion) was an even better predictor than the 12 h clearance. In group 2, however, no statistically significant correlation was observed, even with the number of HSC injected. Results suggest that rapidity of clearance of CD34+cells from PB is an independent indicator of hematologic recovery in patients receiving lower doses of CD34+ cells. When the cell dose injected is over a threshold, PB clearance correlations with hematologic recovery are masked

Bevacizumab for recurrent glioblastoma, early observations on patient outcome in the belgian medical need program

peer reviewe

H2-mismatched transplantation with repetitive cell infusions and CD40 ligand antibody infusions without myeloablation.

Graft rejection and graft-versus-host disease are major problems in mismatched marrow transplants along with toxicity from standard myeloablative host treatments. We have established a tolerization model, using 1 Gy irradiation, which reduces stem cell capacity to < 10% of control while causing minimal myelosuppression, donor antigen pre-exposure (spleen cells), CD40-ligand antibody blockade and high levels of marrow (40 x 106 cells), which allows for stable long-term multilineage engraftment in H2-mismatched murine marrow transplants. We now show that the establishment of 'microchimaerism' (0.5-3.8%) sets the stage for macrochimaerism, with subsequent marrow infusions in H2-mismatched mice with CD40-ligand blockade only. Neither irradiation nor spleen cell exposure were necessary. When 40 x 106 bone marrow cells were infused on weeks 0, 12, 14 and 16, blood engraftment was about seven times the single 40 x 106 control. When marrow cells were given on weeks 0, 3, 4, 5 and 6, engraftment at 24 weeks post transplant was 17.9 +/- 1.2%, compared with 2.7 +/- 0.8% for the single 40 x 106 control (P = 0.009). We have shown stable, long-term multilineage chimaerism and established that the schedule of marrow administration, not the total cell dose, is critical for tolerization. This approach indicates that microchimaerism can tolerize for subsequent marrow infusions and produce macrochimaerism. This strategy could be applied in clinical human transplants