The present study was undertaken to explore the effect of administration of high doses of sodium selenite on the apoptosis of lymphoma cells in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Forty patients with newly diagnosed NHL were randomly divided into two groups. Group I received standard chemotherapy, whereas group II received adjuvant sodium selenite 0.2 mg kg(-1) day(-1) for 7 days in addition to chemotherapy. Flow cytometry was used for monitoring of lymphoma cells apoptosis at the time of diagnosis and after therapy in the two groups. Sodium selenite administration resulted in significant increase in percentage of apoptotic lymphoma cells after therapy in group II (78.9 +/- 13.3% versus 58.9 +/- 18.9%, p < 0.05). In addition, patients who received sodium selenite treatment demonstrated statistically significant increase in percentage of reduction of cervical and axillary lymphadenopathy, decrease in splenic size, and decreased percentage of bone marrow infiltration. Also, we found a statistically significant decrease in cardiac ejection fraction (CEF) in group I and no reduction in CEF in patients who received sodium selenite 'group II', denoting the cardioprotective effect of selenium. It is concluded that sodium selenite administration at the dosage and duration chosen has synergistic effect to chemotherapy in inducing apoptosis and, consequently, could improve clinical outcome.

BACKGROUND: Graft versus host disease (GVHD) represents a main cause of post-transplant morbidity and mortality. Ectonucleotidases are one of major components of purinergic signaling which is one of the important mediator pathways regulating cellular functions. CD73 is the most significant member of ectonucleotidases. AIM: The aim of the study was to assess role of CD73 in development/severity of GVHD among patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) SUBJECT AND METHODS: This is a prospective study conducted on 30 adult patients eligible for allogeneic HSCT and their 30 donors in a period of 2 years from January 2015 until January 2017. Assessment of CD73 positive cells through flow cytometry on peripheral blood samples in donors during assessment period before receiving G-CSF and in recipients before conditioning at day −7 and once GVHD occurs (within 12 months) or at end of follow-up period was done. RESULTS: CD73 level was significantly higher in recipients pre/post-transplantation (58.24 ± 19.68, 65.78 ± 19.03 respectively) than in donors (29.08 ±14.14) (p = 0.022), there is a significant negative correlation between pre-transplant CD73 level in recipients and occurrence of chronic GVHD (cGVHD), (p = 0.004) and its grade (p = 0.0496). Ectonucleotidase CD73 expression in recipients was a good predictor of cGVHD with sensitivity of 100% and Specificity of 65% at cut off value ≤61.07%. CD73 expression in recipients was independently predicting cGVHD. CONCLUSION: CD 73 may represent a promising, clinically applicable tool of predicting cGVHD and its grade in patients undergoing HSCT.

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Background Invasive fungal infection (IFI) is a major cause morbidity and mortality among patients with hematological malignancies who receive chemotherapy or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Thus, early diagnosis and treatment of these infections are of crucial importance. Certain factors have been identified as risk factors for IFI. Objectives Assessment of incidence and outcome of IFI in Egyptian patients with febrile neutropenia. Patients and Methods 50 febrile neutropenia episodes were studied. Patients were all subjected to history taking, clinical examination and further investigations including imaging studies, Galactomannan and Mannan antigen assays, and patients were followed up for observing the outcome. Results Our study found that hypertensive patients had significantly reduced LA function as measured by speckle tracking when compared to normotensive controls (P-value &lt; 0.001). Also, many factors were associated with worse LA function in hypertensive patients as old age, high BMI, DM, LV diastolic dysfunction, high LV mass index, larger LA size, lower LA expansion index and higher systolic BP. Conclusion IFI incidence is affected by age, gender, primary diagnosis and severity of neutropenia, and IFI has a worse outcome compared to other causes of febrile neutropenia.

Death from injury has increased by 20% over the last decade and accounts for more deaths than malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV combined. (1) Hemorrhage requiring massive transfusion secondary to trauma and major surgery remains a major cause of potentially preventable deaths, and development of coagulopathy further substantially increases the mortality rates of hemorrhaging patients (2) Classically, massive transfusion has been defined as receiving 10 red blood cell (RBC) units in 24 hours, although recently, a change toward applying the rate of transfusion in a shorter time frame such as 2 or 6 hours has been broadly accepted. (3) Massive blood loss is arbitrarily defined as the loss of one blood volume within a 24 h period (4). The normal adult blood volume being approximately 7% of ideal body weight in adults and 8-9% in children. Alternative definitions that may be more helpful in the acute situation include a 50% blood volume loss within 3 h or a rate of loss of 150 ml/min (5)