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The article discusses a study which investigated the association between telomere length and clinical outcomes in patients with severe aplastic anemia. The study included 183 patients with severe aplastic anemia who were treated at the U.S. National Institutes of Health from 2000 to 2008. Findings showed no relationship between hematologic response and telomere length. Study authors concluded that the length of telomere is not related to therapeutic response but it is linked with the risk of relapse, clonal evolution and overall survival.

Examines the rate of the flavivirus GB virus C/hepatitis G virus (GBV-C/HGV) infection in American children and young adults in the United States. Detection of the flavivirus GBV-C/HGV in blood donors; Presence of neutralizing antibody to the envelope protein in donors; Prevalence of GBV-C/HGV infection among American children and young adults even in the absence of blood transfusion.

SEN virus (SENV) has been tentatively linked to transfusion-associated non-A-E hepatitis. We investigated SENV's role in unexplained hepatitis in other settings. Polymerase chain reaction amplification was used to detect 2 SENV variants (SENV-D and SENV-H) in 1706 patients and control subjects. SENV was detected in 54 (22%) of 248 patients with acute or chronic non-A-E hepatitis, 9 (35%) of 26 patients with hepatitis-associated aplastic anemia, and 0 of 17 patients with cryptogenic acute liver failure, compared with 150 (24%) of 621 control subjects with liver disease and 76 (10%) of 794 healthy control subjects. When controlling for geographic region, the prevalence of SENV among case and control subjects was not significantly different. The severity of acute or chronic hepatitis A, B, or C was not influenced by coexisting SENV infection. No etiological role for SENV in the cause of cryptogenic hepatitis could be demonstrated.