Anticardiolipin antibodies in acute non-hemorrhagic stroke seen within six hours after onset.

INTRODUCTION: We have undertaken a prospective study to measure anticardiolipin antibodies of IgG isotype within the first few hours of an acute non-hemorrhagic stroke. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We have collected blood samples at entry from one hundred patients (53 men and 47 women), mean age 67.4 years, referred within 6 h of a first-ever non-hemorrhagic stroke, and from an equal number of age- and gender-matched control patients. RESULTS: IgG anticardiolipin antibodies were > or = 10 GPL in 26 patients and in 5 controls (p < 0.0001, X2 test). After logistic regression analysis, increase of IgG anticardiolipin antibodies remained independently associated with stroke (p = 0.0034), together with hypertension (p = 0.0009) and atrial fibrillation (p = 0.0238). CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that the occurrence of elevation of IgG anticardiolipin antibodies in stroke patients should antedate stroke onset and might be a risk factor per se.

Peripheral T-cell subsets in patients with alopecia areata in different clinical phases.

An analysis of T-cell subpopulations was carried out in the peripheral blood of 21 subjects with alopecia areata (AA) of the scalp in various phases of its evolution and in 18 healthy control subjects by means of different monoclonal antibodies of OKT series (T3, T4, T8, T11). Patients with AA in active phase showed a significant reduction of OKT 8+ cells (p less than 0.002) and a significant increase of OKT 4+ cells (p less than 0.002) versus controls. On the contrary, patients with regrowing hair showed a significant increase of circulating OKT 8+ cells compared with controls (p less than 0.002). No abnormality in the distribution of T-cell subsets in patients with AA in stable phase has been observed.

Familial alopecia areata--genetic susceptibility or coincidence?

Three generations of a not consanguineous Italian family and 40 subjects suffering from alopecia areata (AA) and residing in Northern Italy were studied. There were 321 healthy control subjects of both sexes. Six family members from three generations were affected with alopecia universalis. The subjects were HLA-phenotyped using different HLA-A, B and C antigen specificities. No significant association was found between HLA-A, B and C antigens and AA patients at the population level. Segregation analysis showed that affected members shared a common haplotype, HLA-Aw32, B18,-.

Mycosis fungoides. Peripheral T cell subsets defined by specific monoclonal antibodies.

Peripheral blood lymphocytes from 16 mycosis fungoides (MF) patients were studied using OKT series monoclonal antihuman T cell antibodies. The percentage of OKT3+ cells was in normal range for all MF patients compared with controls; the percentage of OKT4+ cells was significantly increased (p less than 0.002) in MF patients versus controls; the percentage of OKT8+ and OKT11+ cells in the MF group did not differ from controls. The OKT4+ cell expansion was apparently not dependent from the clinical stage of disease. These findings suggest that in MF patients there is a circulating OKT4+ cell expansion and, indirectly, that MF could be regarded as a helper T cell neoplasm.