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Purpose: To assess the efficacy of FOLFIRINOX(FFX), gemcitabine-based regimens (GB), and gemcitabine monotherapy (Gem) in patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC)., Methods: This is a retrospective study that included 83 patients with mPDAC treated with first-line chemotherapy (L1) with either FFX, GB or Gem between 2015 and 2017. Progression-free survival (PFS) for L1 and second-line chemotherapy (L2) (PFS-L1 and PFS-L2) and overall survival (OS) were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method., Results: Median PFS-L1 for FFX, GB and Gem groups was 9 months (95% (Confidence Interval) CI 2.76-15.24), 5 months (95%CI 3.44-6.56), and 5 months (95%CI 3.76-6.24), respectively ( p = 0.04). OS was 14 months (95%CI 11.16-16.85), 12 months (95%CI: 9.44-11.56), and 7 months (95%CI: 5.7-8.3) for patients treated with FFX, GB, and Gem, respectively ( p = 0.0001). ECOG-PS (0/1) (Hazard Ratio (HR) 6.74, p = 0.002), age > 70 years (HR 0.25, p = 0.04), body tumors (HR 2.8, p = 0.048), CA19-9 > 39 U/mL (HR 0.26, p = 0.02), and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) > 4.15 (HR 6.76, p = 0.001) were independent prognostic factors for PFS-L1. Male gender (HR 3.02, p = 0.026), ECOG-PS (0/1) (HR 4.21, p = 0.003), L1 with FFX (HR 0.255, p = 0.007), and NLR > 4.15 (HR 2.65, p = 0.04) were independent prognostic factors of OS. PFS-L2 (HR 6.91, p = 0.013) and OS-L2 (HR 6.95, p = 0.037) were significantly higher in patients first treated with FFX., Conclusions: The OS of patients who receive FFX or GB is comparable. The best PFS-L1 belongs to the FFX group. Male gender, ECOG-PS 0/1, the FFX regimen, and NLR > 4.15 were independent predictors of OS. PFS-L2 and OS-L2 were favorably impacted by L1 with FFX.

We report a patient with massive facial sarcoidosis. While skin involvement is a common manifestation of sarcoidosis, it is unusual to see it in the dramatic form of cutaneous tumors with mutilation of the central face. There are few reports of tumoral cutaneous sarcoidosis like that of our patient.

Seventy-six venous specimens were examined by indirect immunofluorescence and histological techniques. 80.26% out of them gave negative I.F. reactions. The following causal agents were found on the I.F. positive preparations: Rickettsia burneti, Chlamydia, Mycoplasma, parainfluenza type 3 and adenoviruses, alone or associated. The most frequent lesion noted in I.F. positive specimens was of the inflammatory-dystrophic type. In I.F. negative preparations the dominant lesion was the hyalinosis of the tunica media.

Presence of Mycoplasma, Chlamydia, Rickettsia burnetii, influenza type B, herpes and adenoviruses was detected by immunofluorescence in artery fragments collected from patients with arteriopathy. Pathohistological examination of the samples revealed inflammatory--lympho-histiocytic infiltration--and mostly dystrophic alterations. Arteriopathies were localised mostly at the pelvic limb level, especially on femoral artery. Their incidence was statistically significant.

Presence of Mycoplasma Chlamydia, Rickettsia burnetii, influenza type B, herpes and adenoviruses was detected by immunofluorescence in artery fragments collected from patients with arteriopathy. Pathohistological examination of the samples revealed inflammatory--lympho-histiocytic infiltration--and mostly dystrophic alterations. Arteriopathies were localised mostly at the pelvic limb level, especially on femoral artery. Their incidence was statistically significant.

The presence of fourteen inframicrobial agents was investigated by the immunofluorescence technique using specific antisera on 345 samples of arteries and veins collected during operation from patients with chronic vascular diseases (arteritis, varicosity) and on 50 samples of umbilical cord. Results indicated a positivity rate of 75.45%; most of the cases had associations of two to five antigens. Coxsackie A virus and mycoplasmas were the agents most frequently found.

The immunofluorescence technique using antisera against some viruses and inframicrobes allowed the detection of pathogens in altered vascular tissues (arteritis and phlebitis-phlebectasia). Pathomorphological aspects and some dehydrogenase activities in these patients were also investigated.

Natural macromolecular polycations (protamine, histones H1, H2A, H2B and H3) caused the clustering of influenza and parainfluenza viruses into aggregates heterogeneous in size, as well as a decrease in their hemagglutinating capacity. Polycation-induced virus alterations consisted in surface pyknosis and an increase most efficient as regards the interaction with viruses.

Various techniques are described for the preparation of complement-fixing(CF) antigen from the cell-associated phase of two strains of human cytomegalovirus. Preliminary results regarding the preparation of CF antigen from extracellular virus are also presented. The qualities and shortcomings of each of the biological preparations obtained by the different procedures are outlined.

Spectrophotometric determinations as regards absorption at 280 nm, 260 nm and 224-237 nm, emission at 280-350 nm and light scattering at 550 nm were performed with suspensions of influenza virus A/Brasil/11/78 (H1N1) over a pH range from 2 to 12. The results obtained proved that changes in spectral parameters were minimal in the pH range from 6 to 10, a fact which could be correlated both with the preservation of the intact virion structure (as visualized by electron microscopy) and with the domain of biological stability of influenza virus.

Within the framework of their research concerns regarding the presence of papova viruses in the human population of Romania, as well as the relationship between these viruses and certain forms of human cancer, the authors undertook an electron microscopic study of 4 renal tumors and 6 melanomas. No viral particles could be made evident in any of the sections examined. Viral SV-40 antigen was detected by indirect immunofluorescence reaction in kidney sections from a nephrosis case considered as control.

Purified influenza virus A(H1N1) was sonicated in a continuous flow Ultrasonics F600 device at 20 kHz, 600 W. Electron optic examination of samples collected at different time intervals revealed morphologic alterations of the virus particles, gradually increasing in intensity: detachment of surface components, disruption of the viral corpuscles and of their constitutive elements, appearance of ghosts and of clustered viral components different in size and orientation.

The morphological changes caused by the interaction of influenza virus A(H1N1) with three fluorescent aromatic compounds (a vinyl-sulfonic and an isocyano naphthalic acid derivative and the 4-acetylamino-naphthalene-1,8-dicarboxylic acid) were studied in the electron microscope. The intensity and type of the alterations depend on the chemical structure of the compounds and can be correlated with their effect on the biological activities of influenza virus.

The electron microscopic study of a mouse kidney cell line (R1) infected with a murine cytomegalovirus strain isolated from a micromammal captured in the area of endemic Balkan nephropathy demonstrated the presence of multiple types of virus particles, in different phases of replication. Nucleocapsids with a partially or almost totally empty centre were predominant. The small number of particles with an electron-dense core and double envelope points to a low yield of mature infectant particles.

Serum samples from three patients with Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN) were inoculated intraperitoneally to guinea pigs. After a very long incubation period (58-273 days) the animals developed an experimental disease characterized by apathy, tremor, convulsions and a fatal outcome. The disease could be serially propagated, the same clinical symptoms being recorded at each of the three passages performed. The morphological features of the experimental disease included glomerular and tubular lesions and the presence of interstitial fibrous and lymphoplasmocytic reactions. Different hypotheses on the etiology of BEN are discussed.

The review reflects the concerns of researchers of the "Stefan S. Nicolau" Institute of Virology who used electron microscopy techniques with a view to visualizing morphological features of virus structure (influenza, adeno, hepatitis, herpes, cytomegalic, Aujeszky, rabies viruses, etc.) and different aspects of the virus - host cell relationships (Sendai virus/Hep2 cells, influenza and adenovirus/mouse lung, subacute sclerosing panencephalitis/human brain or cell cultures, Coxsackie and foot-and-mouth disease virus/myofibrils, Rubarth hepatitis virus/chick embryo liver cells, a.o.). Morphological aspects of normal or tumoral cells and the influence of chemical agents (actinomycin D, EDTA), viruses, bacteria or parasites have also been studied. Mention is made of several original techniques used to obtain electron microscopy preparations.

Simultaneous inoculation of chick embryos with a standard laboratory influenza virus--A/PR8/34 (H0N1)--and with an autochthonous epidemic strain--belonging to the antigenic subtype A(H1N1) of A(H3N2), respectively--resulted in the isolation of two genetic recombinants, designated R1IVN (H1N1) and R2IVN (H3N2). Each recombinant was antigenically identical to its wild-type parent and exhibited a hemagglutinating titer in chick embryos about 4-fold greater than that of the autochthonous parental strain.

Intracerebral inoculation to guinea pigs of cerebrospinal fluid or brain suspensions from 6 patients with Creutzfeldt--Jakob disease was followed in 4 cases by the appearance, after a long incubation period, of a serially transmissible experimental disease. The disease was characterized by tremor, discrete ataxia and convulsions and led to a fatal outcome within several days. Microscopic lesions in the brain of guinea pigs with the experimental disease consisted in glial proliferation, spongiform change and vacuolation of neuron cytoplasm. Electron microscopy proved that the vacuoles were situated in the endoplasmic reticulum and in the cytoplasmic processes.

Persistent infection with measles virus established in a calf kidney cell line differed in some features from other measles virus carrier systems. After a variable life span, ranging from 50 to 1100 days, six of the chronically infected cell lines showed an evolution towards lytic infection. Only one of these lines, the K-2 cell line, exhibited marked morphological, growth and chromosomal alterations suggesting in vitro cellular transformation. The transformed K-2 cells released infectious measles virus with several modified biological parameters. Persistent infection was not due to the accumulation of thermosensitive mutants or defective particles. The role of the host-cell factor and of the selection of the virus population during its passage in RV cells are discussed.

The interaction between Sendai virus and some fluorescent aromatic compounds with reactive chemical groups ( a vinyl-sulfonic and an isocyano naphthalic acid derivative) leads to alterations of the surface and inner structure of virus corpuscles. The intensity of the changes depends on the type of reactive group. No such morphological changes were induced by 1-amino-2-anthraquinone-sulfonic acid, a compound whose interaction with the virus is exclusively of physical nature.

Sendai virus multiplication in the presence of ceruloplasmin resulted in the appearance of qualitatively modified progens. There was an increase in the proportion of incomplete virus particles and a decrease in hemagglutinin and neuraminidase activities, in virus infectivity and antigenicity (with the exception of subviral fractions with predominant hemagglutinating activity). Virus progens obtained in the presence of ceruloplasmin had a higher sensitivity to detergent treatment; virus ghosts formed by re-aggregation of envelope fragments could be observed in the electron microscope.

An electron microscopic study was performed in the K-2 calf kidney cell line persistently infected with measles virus. Aggregates of granular filamentous structures 20-30 nm in diameter were detected in the paranuclear zone of the cytoplasm. Rare, isolated smooth filaments 15-17 nm in diameter were also observed. No such structures were seen in the nucleus. The budding process was very active. Many pleomorphic particles ranging in diameter from 100 to 600 nm were observed at the cell surface and in the intercellular space; the particles contained a variable amount of filamentous nucleocapsid structures and had an envelope with discontinuous fuzzy material.