The aim of this study was to determine the time to positivity (TTP) of neonatal blood cultures, to investigate differences between early onset versus late-onset sepsis, and non-proven versus proven sepsis, and to examine differences in TTP by organism type using a retrospective observational study at the

The PENTRA 60C(+) hematology analyzer provides a complete blood cell (CBC) count, including a five-part differential (5-DIFF) count and two leukocyte subpopulations, i.e. large immature cells (LIC's) and atypical lymphocytes (ALY's). We evaluated its analytical performance and assessed agreement with the ADVIA 2120, in order to install the analyzer in a small satellite hematology laboratory. First we assessed repeatability, reproducibility and carry-over to evaluate the analytical performance. Then we used Pearson correlation coefficients, Passing and Bablok regression analysis and a graphical approach (n = 209) to evaluate agreement with the ADVIA 2120. Repeatability and reproducibility were excellent for the majority of CBC and 5-DIFF count parameters. Carry-over was negligible. Our data showed very good correlation for most CBC count parameters. Lower correlation coefficients were observed for red cell distribution width, mean corpuscular volume and mean platelet volume. As compared to the ADVIA 2120, the 5-DIFF count performed very well. Agreement was poorer for low-level eosinophils and basophils. Furthermore, the PENTRA 60C(+) was equally able to identify pathological blood samples through the determination of LIC's and ALY's. Therefore, the PENTRA 60C(+) is an eligible blood cell counter to be operational in a satellite laboratory setting.

Cervarix™ is approved as a preventive vaccine against infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV) strains 16 and 18, which are causally related to the development of cervical cancer. We are the first to investigate in vitro the effects of this HPV vaccine on interleukin (IL)-15 dendritic cells (DC) as proxy of a naturally occurring subset of blood DC, and natural killer (NK) cells, two innate immune cell types that play an important role in antitumour immunity. Our results show that exposure of IL-15 DC to the HPV vaccine results in increased expression of phenotypic maturation markers, pro-inflammatory cytokine production and cytotoxic activity against HPV-positive tumour cells. These effects are mediated by the vaccine adjuvant, partly through Toll-like receptor 4 activation. Next, we demonstrate that vaccine-exposed IL-15 DC in turn induce phenotypic activation of NK cells, resulting in a synergistic cytotoxic action against HPV-infected tumour cells. Our study thus identifies a novel mode of action of the HPV vaccine in boosting innate immunity, including killing of HPV-infected cells by DC and NK cells.

The Indirect Immune Fluorescence Test (iIFT) is the most commonly used screening method for the diagnosis of autoimmune diseases. The presence of certain autoimmune diseases is proven by immunologically detecting their corresponding auto-antibodies using the HEp-2 cancer cell line. For this purpose HEp-2 cells are added to the patients' blood serum containing certain auto-antibodies which will bond with the HEp-2 cells leading to a wide variety of patterns that can be observed under a fluorescence microscope. Due to the disadvantages of manual testing, automation and standardization are necessary. This paper proposes an unsupervised segmentation algorithm as part of an ongoing research to develop a CAD system to digitally support iIFT testing.

Differential time to positivity of paired blood cultures may have some potential in the diagnosis of catheter-related infections in neonatal intensive care unit patients and should be subjected to a prospective study.