ABSTRACT
A stringent procedure for the diagnosis of human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV) infection was applied to 1,732 volunteer blood donors, 401 patients with various hematological disorders and 78 individuals at high risk for HIV infection. It consisted of a viral lysate-based screening assay (Abbott Laboratories, North Chicago, Ill., USA), and two confirmatory assays (Western blot and radioimmunoprecipitation assay). A confirmed positive sample had to react with at least two different HTLV gene products. Evidence of HTLV infection was not found in either blood donors or patients with hematological disorders. In fact, HTLV infection was only observed in 10 intravenous drug abusers or their sexual partners. Contrary to previous reports that claimed HTLV seroprevalences of between 0.3 and 8% in blood donors from Apulia (Italy), our data suggest that infection with this virus is principally restricted to intravenous drug abusers.
Subject(s)
Blood Donors , Blood Transfusion , Deltaretrovirus Antibodies/analysis , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Deltaretrovirus Infections/epidemiology , Female , Humans , Immunoenzyme Techniques , Italy/epidemiology , Male , Middle Aged , Substance Abuse, Intravenous/complicationsABSTRACT
An uncommon abnormal hemoglobin, Hb Belfast (beta 15 Trp replaced by Arg) was discovered in a patient of Italian origin. The patient was a 42-year-old man who developed two episodes of jaundice after a prolonged administration of an antituberculous drugs. Family studies revealed that several members were asymptomatic carriers of Hb Belfast.
Subject(s)
Hemoglobins, Abnormal/isolation & purification , Adult , Arginine , Chemical Phenomena , Chemistry , Female , Hemoglobins/analysis , Hemoglobins, Abnormal/genetics , Humans , Italy , Male , Pedigree , TryptophanABSTRACT
An alpha-chain variant hemoglobin was found in the hemolysate of a 21-year-old healthy male living in Bari (Puglia, Italy). Structural studies demonstrated a previously unreported amino acid substitution, alpha 2 45 (CD3) His leads to Gln beta 2, involving a distal heme contact. The new variant has been named Hb Bari. Its electrophoretic behavior was the same as for Hb A; it was stable to both isopropanol and heat denaturation and exhibited normal functional properties, with respect to whole blood and stripped hemolysate studies. The level of Hb Bari was about 20% in the observed carrier. No relative was available for further investigations.
Subject(s)
Hemoglobins, Abnormal , 1-Propanol , Adult , Amino Acid Sequence , Electrophoresis, Cellulose Acetate , Hemoglobins, Abnormal/metabolism , Hot Temperature , Humans , Male , Protein Denaturation , Structure-Activity RelationshipABSTRACT
3183 sera from healthy adults, volunteer blood donors (18-65-year aged) have been tested by a commercial ria (ausria II Abbott), for detection of HBsAg. The frequency of Australia antigen wsa found to be 5.2% (168/3183) in all sera, 6.3% in male and 3.5% in female donors, with differences statistically significant (p less than 0.01). In male donors, the prevalence was highest in the first half of the life (18-40 years)(7.0%) than in the second half (41-65 years) (3.7%), and the difference was also statistiically significant (p less than 0.05). In female donors the HBs Ag frequency was 4.2% and 2.2% repectively for the first and the second half of the life, but the difference was not statistically significant. Possible epidemiological significances were discussed.
