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A case of Clostridium septicum aortitis is reported. The patient did not present any colon tumor. She died in spite of surgery and i.v. antibiotics. To date C. septicum has been reported only in about 40 cases of infectious aortitis, a disease with unspecific clinical presentation and a high mortality rate. A high index of suspicion is warranted for an early diagnosis which can be made mainly by blood cultures and contrast-enhanced CT-scan. Only starting without delay a treatment that combines antibiotics with surgery can improve a prognosis that remains nevertheless globally bad., Competing Interests: Les auteurs n’ont déclaré aucun conflit d’intérêts en relation avec cet article.

We present here evaluation of a new blood gas analysis system, RapidPoint 500(®) (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics). The aim of this research was to compare the ergonomics and analytical performances of this analyser with those of the RapidLab 1265 for the following parameters: pH, partial oxygen pressure, partial carbon dioxide pressure, sodium, potassium, ionized calcium, lactate and the CO-oximetry parameters: hemoglobin, oxyhemoglobin, carboxyhemoglobin, methemoglobin, reduced hemoglobin, neonatal bilirubin; as well as with the Dimension Vista 500 results for chloride and glucose. The Valtec protocol, recommended by the French Society of Clinical Biology (SFBC), was used to analyze the study results. The experiment was carried out over a period of one month in the Department of medical biochemistry. One hundred sixty five samples from adult patients admitted to the ER or hospitalized in intensive care were tested. The RapidPoint 500(®) was highly satisfactory from an ergonomic point of view. Intra-and inter- assay coefficients of variation (CV) with the three control levels were below those recommended by the SFBC for all parameters, and the comparative study gave coefficients of determination higher than 0.91. Taken together, the RapidPoint 500(®) appears fully satisfactory in terms of ergonomics and analytical performance.

For point-of-care-testing (POCT), the French regulation on medical biology states allows a unique situation where a delayed validation of results is possible. This paper proposes guidelines to organize POCT post-analytical phase in agreement with the local regulation and ISO 22870 requirements. In the first part, organization of POCT validation is detailed (since analysis results reading by the physician until validation of results by the medical biologist and their integration into the patient record). In a second part, elements to include in POCT presentation of results are discussed and a model is proposed.

Asymmetric cell division is the process by which a single cell gives rise to two different daughter cells. This process is important to generate cell diversity during the development of multicellular organisms, as well as for stem cell self-renewal in adults. Current knowledge on so-called cancer stem cells suggests that a loss of asymmetry during their division could lead to overproliferation and favour tumorigenesis, highlighting the importance of deciphering the mechanisms governing asymmetric cell division. Two mechanisms can lead to an asymmetric cell division: asymmetry can either be governed by proximity to a given cellular environment (or niche), in which case the mechanism is referred to as extrinsic, or the mother cell polarizes itself without external intervention, in which case the mechanism is referred to as intrinsic. In the last 20 years, our understanding of intrinsic mechanisms leading to asymmetric cell division has progressed, largely after studies carried out in model organisms such as the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. These models allowed the identification of molecular complexes used by nearly all the cells that divide asymmetrically, including human cells. Here we review the main intrinsic mechanisms of asymmetric cell division as described in model organisms and discuss their relevance towards mammalian tumorigenesis.