Fatal anaphylactic sting reaction in a patient with mastocytosis

We report on a 33-year-old female patient with indolent systemic mastocytosis and urticaria pigmentosa who died of an anaphylactic reaction after a yellow jacket sting. As she had no history of previous anaphylactic sting reaction, there was no testing performed in order to detect hymenoptera venom sensitization. But even if a sensitization had been diagnosed, no venom immunotherapy (VIT) would have been recommended. It is almost certain that VIT would have saved her life and it is most likely that VIT is indicated in some patients with mastocytosis with no history of anaphylactic sting reaction. However, no criteria have been established in order to allow a selection of mastocytosis patients eligible for such a `prophylactic' VIT. Copyright (C) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel

Electron-phonon interaction dressed by electronic correlations near charge ordering as the origin for superconductivity in cobaltates

We consider possible routes to superconductivity in hydrated cobaltates Na_xCoO_2.yH_2O on the basis of the t-J-V model plus phonons on the triangular lattice. We studied the stability conditions for the homogeneous Fermi liquid (HFL) phase against different broken symmetry phases. Besides the sqrt(3)xsqrt(3)-CDW phase, triggered by the nearest-neighbour Coulomb interaction V, we have found that the HFL is unstable, at very low doping, against a bond-ordered phase due to J. We also discuss the occurrence of phase separation at low doping and V. The interplay between the electron-phonon interaction and correlations near the sqrt(3)xsqrt(3)-CDW leads to superconductivity in the unconventional next-nearest neighbour f-wave (NNN-f) channel with a dome shape for Tc around x ~ 0.35, and with values of a few Kelvin as seen in experiments. Near the bond-ordered phase at low doping we found tendencies to superconductivity with d-wave symmetry for finite J and x<0.15. Contact with experiments is given along the paper.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figure

Role of haemoglobin in the protection of cultured lymphocytes against diepoxybutane (DEB), assessed by in vitro induced chromosome breakage.

Mutat Res. 2003 Apr 20;536(1-2):61-7. Role of haemoglobin in the protection of cultured lymphocytes against diepoxybutane (DEB), assessed by in vitro induced chromosome breakage. Porto B, Chiecchio L, Gaspar J, Faber A, Pinho L, Rueff J, Malheiro I. Laboratory of Cytogenetics, Instituto Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar (ICBAS), Largo do Prof. Abel Salazar, No. 2, 4099-003, Porto, Portugal. Abstract Diepoxybutane (DEB) is an alkylating agent that can be used to assess chromosome instability in repair-deficient subjects. Previous authors investigated the role of red blood cells (RBC) in determining individual susceptibility to DEB in normal healthy donors, and demonstrated that a polymorphic enzyme in RBC, Glutathione S-transferase T1 (GSTT1), is involved in DEB detoxification. In the present work we studied the influence of individual GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotypes and the presence of RBC on the frequency of DEB-induced chromosome breakage in lymphocyte cultures from normal individuals and, in particular, the influence of isolated components of RBC: RBC membranes, RBC lysate, and haemoglobin. Our results confirm that individual GSTT1 genotypes modulate the level of genetic lesions induced by DEB; however, this effect was not sufficient to explain the highly significant variation in chromosome breakage between whole blood and RBC-depleted cultures. We showed that RBC can protect cultured lymphocytes against chromosome breakage induced by DEB and we demonstrated the particular role of haemoglobin in the protective effect. PMID: 12694746 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

Children with mixed developmental language disorder have more insecure patterns of attachment.

Developmental Language disorders (DLD) are developmental disorders that can affect both expressive and receptive language. When severe and persistent, they are often associated with psychiatric comorbidities and poor social outcome. The development of language involves early parent-infant interactions. The quality of these interactions is reflected in the quality of the child's attachment patterns. We hypothesized that children with DLD are at greater risk of insecure attachment, making them more vulnerable to psychiatric comorbidities. Therefore, we investigated the patterns of attachment of children with expressive and mixed expressive- receptive DLD. Forty-six participants, from 4 years 6 months to 7 years 5 months old, 12 with expressive Specific Language Impairment (DLD), and 35 with mixed DLD, were recruited through our learning disorder clinic, and compared to 23 normally developing children aged 3 years and a half. The quality of attachment was measured using the Attachment Stories Completion Task (ASCT) developed by Bretherton. Children with developmental mixed language disorders were significantly less secure and more disorganized than normally developing children. Investigating the quality of attachment in children with DLD in the early stages could be important to adapt therapeutic strategies and to improve their social and psychiatric outcomes later in life