Prevalence and age distribution of human herpesvirus-8 specific antibodies in Hungarian blood donors.

Sera of blood donors were investigated by a peptide ELISA and indirect immunofluorescence assay to assess the prevalence of HHV-8 infection in the Hungarian population. A 14 amino acid long synthetic oligopeptide from the carboxyterminus of orf65/small virus capsid antigen was used as antigen in the ELISA. ELISA results were confirmed by recombinant orf65 antigen Western blot. Antibodies to the latent nuclear antigen were detected by the immunofluorescence assay. Nine of 12 sera obtained from patients with classical Kaposi sarcoma were reactive by ELISA whereas all were positive by immunofluorescence. Four of 482 (0.83%) healthy blood donors had anti-orf65 peptide antibodies and 17/1089 (1.56%) had antibodies to the latent nuclear antigen. In a group of children ages 1-14 years, antibodies to the latent nuclear antigen (0/29) were not detected. The prevalence of antibodies to the latent nuclear antigen showed a moderate but significant increase in correlation with senescence. In the Kaposi sarcoma patients, the titre of antibodies to the latent nuclear antigen was significantly higher than in the healthy seropositive donors. The overall HHV-8 seroprevalence by the two assays was 2.28% (11/482) in the Hungarian blood donor group.

HHV-8 ELISA based on a one-step affinity capture of biotinylated K8.1 antigen.

The immunogenic envelope antigen gp35-37 of human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) is encoded by orfK8.1. An ELISA is described using streptavidin capture of bacterially expressed and biotinylated recombinant K8.1 antigen. The antigen capture strategy provides a simple and reliable method, which does not require high yield production and purification of the recombinant antigen before the serological assay. The specificity and sensitivity of the K8.1 ELISA were validated by gp35-37 envelope antigen Western blot and anti-lytic membrane immunofluorescence assay using lytically induced HHV-8 infected BCBL-1 cells. Under the established ELISA conditions, eight of the 10 Kaposi's sarcoma patients and five of the 180 healthy blood donors had IgG antibodies to K8.1 envelope antigen.

HLA-DR1 is associated with vitiligo.

In Eastern Hungary, vitiligo is found to be associated with HLA-DR1. When other autoimmune disorders are also present, DR3 is also increased.

[Effect of acute aprotinin (Gordox) therapy on hemostasis in heart surgery patients, with special reference to hyperfibrinolysis]. / Az akut aprotinin (Gordox) terápia hatása a haemostasisra szívsebészeti betegekben, különös tekintettel a hyperfibrinolysisre.

Authors have studied the effect of Gordox-therapy on haemostasis after open heart surgery in a prospective clinical trial. Thirty seven patients (pts) undergoing cardiac surgery due to their valve disease were randomly assigned either to control-group (20 pts) or to Gordox-group (17 pts). The patients in the Gordox group were given Gordox according the following scheme: 2 M IU within 20 min. after induction of anaesthesia followed by 0.5 M IU/hour infusion until the end of the operation. One M IU also was given into the oxygenator before starting the extracorporeal circulation. The postoperative chest tube drainage was less in Gordox-group (534 +/- 260 ml vs. 987 +/- 583 ml, p less than 0.005), and donor blood and fresh frozen plasma requirement was also lower in this group (534 +/- 633 ml vs. 935 +/- 718 ml p less than 0.05; 70 +/- 153 ml vs. 211 +/- 245 ml p less than 0.05, respectively). There was no significant difference between the two groups concerning the postoperative activated partial thromboplastin time, prothrombin time, thrombin time values. The authors could document significantly higher fibrinogen concentration and significantly lower fibrinolytic activity postoperatively in the Gordox-group (p less than 0.05). Gordox therapy has advantageous effect on haemostasis after open heart surgery which can be documented both by clinical and laboratory examination.

Early clinical experience with a simple method for autotransfusion in cardiac surgery.

A simple method for intraoperative autotransfusion (ATF) in open-heart surgery was tested in a prospective clinical trial. The patients were randomly assigned to a control group (33) or to the ATF group (35). The intraoperative ATF was combined with preoperative collection of blood and postoperative ATF. The postoperative chest-tube drainage was reduced by 24.3%, the donor-blood requirement by 43.3% and the consumption of fresh-frozen plasma by 43.9% in the ATF group as compared with the controls (all differences statistically significant). To investigate possible haematologic side effects of ATF, measurements of haemoglobin, haematocrit, fibrinogen concentration, thrombin, prothrombin and partial thromboplastin time, antithrombin-III and fibrinolytic activity were made in all patients preoperatively and on postoperative days 1 and 2. No statistical differences were then found between the controls and the ATF group. Microbiologic tests of blood sampled from the cardiotomy reservoir gave satisfactory results.