Failure of multiple antivirals to affect high HHV-6 DNAaemia resulting from viral chromosomal integration in case of severe aplastic anaemia.

We report a fifty-year-old woman presenting with severe aplastic anaemia (SAA) and prolonged high Human Herpesvirus 6 (HHV6) variant A DNAeamia detected by quantitative PCR. Multiple antiviral treatments failed to affect the HHV6 DNAemia and subsequent immunosuppressive treatment reached only partial improvement as judged by bone marrow examinations. The patient remained dependent on thrombocyte transfusions and G-CSF treatment. After one year of steady high HHV6 DNA load in blood, viral chromosomal integration was proved by demonstrating the viral DNA in hair follicles. This condition appeared to be unconnected with, and to have no effect, on the original SAA.

[Technical problems in the preparation of biopsy samples of the spleen]. / Technické problémy spracovania bioptických vzoriek sleziny.

Spleen tissue sampling for bioptical examination should be performed after mutual consultation of clinician and pathologist. Clinician should know what is expected from the pathologist. This can influence preparation and sampling method considerably. In a great amount of cases the whole organ is removed. A lab technician is sampling on her own and her contribution to a good result can be either positive or negative. Imprint preparations from the tissue sections can be useful. Specialized examination should be performed in the presence of a pathologist or his co-workers. The active approach of a lab technician can significantly contribute to the value of examined sample of the spleen, of the organ until recently considered to be not important or full of mysteries.

The adult human female urethra. Enzyme-histochemical study.

In the female urethra, the activity and distribution of 15 enzymes was determined by using both conventional and special histochemical methods. The enzymatic equipment differed according to the type of epithelial lining whose variation is characteristic for the female urethra. In the stratified squamous epithelium of the urethra, alkaline phosphatase, beta-glucuronidase, acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase, thiamine pyrophosphatase, and glucose-6-phosphatase exhibited but minimal or no activity, yet the other 10 enzymes studied displayed activity particularly in basally situated cells. Nearer to the lumen of the urethra, the activity in the epithelium kept decreasing and was mostly absent in superficial and desquamated cells. In the pseudostratified columnar and in the transitional epithelium of the urethra, the majority of enzymes showed an evenly distributed activity at all epithelial levels. In the apical parts of the most superficially situated cells bounding the lumen of the urethra, a distinct narrow zone of higher activity was observed. It was seen not only on determining the majority of dehydrogenases but also on examining acid phosphatase and naphthyl esterase. The endocrine cells occurring in the uroepithelial lining of the female urethra displayed, yet always with the exception of squamous epithelium (Zaviacic et al. 1983), distinct activity of acid hydrolytic enzymes, and of the enzymes studied it was particularly acid phosphatase. The majority of the demonstrated enzymes, of the dehydrogenases priority, is to be given to succinate dehydrogenase, enabled to differentiate readily between the highly active striated muscle fibers located in the most peripheral parts of the excisions along the urethral circumference and the smooth musculature of the urethral wall with a lower or only minimal activity.