The role of Bosniak classification in the assessment of renal cystic masses and in the therapeutical protocol

One of the most frequent kidney pathologies encountered in daily practice is represented by the presence of renal cysts. Most of them are asymptomatic and are found accidentally during periodical check-ups because they don’t have clinical signs until they grow and compress the surrounding organs. We have reviewed the current data regarding this pathology, in order to underline the risk of malignant transformation and its impact on the patient’s life. It is estimated that the prevalence rate of renal cysts in the general population is approximately 10% and it increases with age.Imaging investigations, such as contrast tomography or magnetic resonance imaging, are essential for establishing the cysts characteristics, especially when ultrasonography raises the suspicion of a modified renal cyst, as well as in guiding the therapeutical protocol. The Bosniak classification is based on contrast tomography scans and has allowed the standardization of the kidney cysts, considering their characteristics. More attention should be given to Bosniak IIF and III cystic renal masses, which contain thickened walls and more septa, but no enhanced nodules/soft tissue components, because more than half of these cysts can have a malignant component

Design and preclinical testing of an anti-CD41 CAR T cell for the treatment of acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia

Funding Information: Adrian Bogdan Tigu and Catalin Constantinescu contributed equally to the current manuscript. Catalin Constantinescu is funded by an internal grant of the Iuliu Hatieganu University – School of Doctoral Studies. David Kegyes is funded by an internal grant of the Iuliu Hatieganu University – School of Medicine. Mareike Peters is funded by a national grant of the Romanian Society for Bone Marrow Transplantation. Ciprian Tomuleasa is also supported by a grant awarded by the Romanian National Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization: PN‐III‐P4‐ID‐PCE‐2020‐1118 within PNCDI IV, Projects for Exploratory Medicine; Projects for Exploratory Medicine—PCE 225/2021; as well as a national grant awarded to Young Research Teams (PN‐III‐PI‐1.1‐TE‐2019‐0271 –‘Supporting a team of young researchers to create an independent research program based on the use of Sleeping Beauty protocol f or the development of CAR T Cells – SEATTLE’). Diana Gulei, Diana Cenariu, Adrian Bogdan Tigu, Jon Thor Bergthorsson and Victor Greiff are supported by an international collaborative grant of the European Economic Space between Romania and Iceland 2021–2023: ‘Cooperation strategy for knowledge transfer, internationalization and curricula innovation in the field of research education at the 3rd level of study –AURORA.’ Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine published by Foundation for Cellular and Molecular Medicine and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia (AMkL) is a rare subtype of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) representing 5% of all reported cases, and frequently diagnosed in children with Down syndrome. Patients diagnosed with AMkL have low overall survival and have poor outcome to treatment, thus novel therapies such as CAR T cell therapy could represent an alternative in treating AMkL. We investigated the effect of a new CAR T cell which targets CD41, a specific surface antigen for M7-AMkL, against an in vitro model for AMkL, DAMI Luc2 cell line. The performed flow cytometry evaluation highlighted a percentage of 93.8% CAR T cells eGFP-positive and a limited acute effect on lowering the target cell population. However, the interaction between effector and target (E:T) cells, at a low ratio, lowered the cell membrane integrity, and reduced the M7-AMkL cell population after 24 h of co-culture, while the cytotoxic effect was not significant in groups with higher E:T ratio. Our findings suggest that the anti-CD41 CAR T cells are efficient for a limited time spawn and the cytotoxic effect is visible in all experimental groups with low E:T ratio.Peer reviewe

Analysis of Some Essential Aspects Related to the Navigation Conditions on the Danube River

The European Union has emphasized the creation of an appropriate framework to optimize the internal market and inland transport waterways, and remove barriers to their wider use. Administrative barriers in the logistics of goods on the Danube waterway and its navigable tributaries constitute a significant obstacle to the efficient and sustainable use of the Danube as the region’s central transport hub. The approach proposed in this paper was designed to identify and analyze the relationship between the main variables leading to problematic inland waterway traffic, in this case, on the Danube, and the measures taken by the European Commission to improve it. In terms of the applied research method, “Quality Function Deployment” (QFD), we assign global (overall) and local priority degrees. The proposed framework for adapting QFD as a tool for improving quality and, therefore, performance, aims to identify and prioritize directions for this improvement. The House of Quality (HOQ) is the tool that links areas for improvement to technical requirements. The disclosure of these connections helps identify and prioritize the technical features that will generate the most significant improvements

PARTICULAR ASPECTS OF ACUTE LEUKAEMIA IN CHILDREN WITH DOWN SYNDROME – CASELOAD ANALYSIS OF THE PAEDIATRIC DEPARTMENT OF FUNDENI CLINICAL INSTITUTE 2010-2018

Introduction. Down syndrome (DS) is an important medical problem because it is one of the most frequent genetic diseases in children despite thorough neonatal screening, with an incidence of approximately 1:10 to 1.000 live births worldwide (1,3,4). An essential aspect is that patients with DS have a 10-15 higher risk than the general paediatric population to develop malignant hemopathy, 20-30% develop acute leukaemia (AL) (5). Recent studies reveal a good response of AL to chemotherapy in patients with DS, mortality is due to multiple complications associated with associated morbidity, which makes the management of these pathologies a real challenge especially in adapting chemotherapy, which has determined the interest for the clinic's caseload analysis. We conducted an 8-year study at the Paediatric Department of Fundeni Clinical Institute of Bucharest, Romania. Objectives. Analysis of the particular diagnostic and therapeutic aspects of patients with DS and acute leukaemia (AL), ALL and AML, on the records of the Paediatric department of Fundeni Clinical Institute during 2010-2018. Material and method. The retrospective, observational, analytical study monitored the cohort from the following points of view: incidence, epidemiology, age at diagnosis, AL type, clinical symptoms at onset, survival rate, overall mortality, treatment related mortality (TRM), identification of relapse and the complex therapeutic attitude of both the underlying pathology and of leukaemia with the assessment of the response rate to chemotherapy. Conclusions. The complex approach of DS-associated hematologic pathology led to an increased percentage of complete remission, 91.6%, without identifying any relapse during the study. Low values of overall survival rate over 8 years and EFS at 3 years = 50% demonstrates an increased mortality rate during the chemotherapy due to the complications generated by this one (TRM 41.6%), which demonstrates the difficulty of managing such a child with two serious diseases, DS and AL. The DS-specific genetic profile produces increased sensitivity to chemotherapy toxicity and multiple organic impairment, which increases the morbidity and mortality rate in these patients, regardless the mortality due to malign hemopathy