Greetings: I have been referred here in hopes of finding some answers. I am a website editor and scientific layperson, and I'm in the process of creating a dictionary of histiocytic terms for families and patients with Langerhans cell histiocytosis and hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis. These are very rare diseases that are sometimes fatal. There are several hallmarks for diagnosis, one being CD1a positivity, another being presence of Birbeck granules on electron microscopy and another being positive S-100 staining. I have read numerous relevant articles but am unable to extrapolate a specific definition for CD1a and S-100 as they relate to histiocytosis. I need a concise definition that would be decipherable to a patient with this illness. I also would like to know how these tests are done. Can anyone help? Thanks, Sandra Conway Warren -- email: tryon3@concentric.net email: sandra@histio.org fax: +1 425 696 9392 (United States)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jan 05 2003 - 19:01:44 EST