Ecological role of mycotoxin and consequences of the presence of mycotoxins in crop residues on the survival and pathogenic activity of Fusarium graminearum

Impact of deoxynivalenol on soil microflora and fauna

F. graminearum is an important pathogen that causes head blight of cereal crops as wheat and maize. It also produces the mycotoxins (as Deoxynivalenol=DON) which are toxic to the human and animals. During the off season the pathogen survives in the soil, on weeds and in crop residues. A 24 weeks study was conducted in controlled conditions (microcosms of natural soil, 17 °C, 80% WHC) to test whether the presence of DON in the wheat crop residues gives competitive advantage to F. graminearum over the other soil microflora and fauna to survive and develop a primary inoculum during the decomposition process. This study was carried out in the presence of the whole soil biota (i.e. fungi, bacter…

Validation of the ISTH/SSC bleeding assessment tool for inherited platelet disorders: A communication from the Platelet Physiology SSC

Background: Careful assessment of bleeding history is the first step in the evaluation of patients with mild/moderate bleeding disorders, and the use of a bleeding assessment tool (BAT) is strongly encouraged. Although a few studies have assessed the utility of the ISTH-BAT in patients with inherited platelet function disorders (IPFD) none of them was sufficiently large to draw conclusions and/or included appropriate control groups. Objectives: The aim of the present study was to test the utility of the ISTH-BAT in a large cohort of patients with a well-defined diagnosis of inherited platelets disorder in comparison with two parallel cohorts, one of patients with type-1 von Willebrand disea…