The opening chapter of this compilation is dedicated to the quantification of selenium and platinum in blood serum by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. While selenium is an essential trace element in many selenoproteins, platinum is found in the human body as a consequence of chemotherapy treatment after the administration of Pt-based drugs. For these reasons, their reliable quantification is extremely important. The authors go on to discuss how the early diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases is important for more efficient treatment and prophylaxis. Currently, the dominant hypothesis of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease is amyloid cascade resulting in accumulation of amyloid-I(2) in brain structures. In conclusion, the authors discuss the major barrier to a widespread use of blood serum eye drops represented by the lack of standardized processes for the preparation, conservation, and dispensation of the products. Future perspectives of homologous serum eye drops include the introduction of tailored eye drops screened for the desired content of growth factors for each patient and ocular surface disease.

Natural killer (NK) cells are important effector cells of innate immune system implicated in many physiological processes including elimination of cancer cells and virus infected cells. NK cells comprise a majority of large granular lymphocytes circulating in peripheral blood with a minority derived from T cell lineage. Even though NK cells were first described more than 40 years ago, it was not until the 1980s and 1990s when immunophenotyping was incorporated into clinical diagnostic methods and resulted in discovery of distinct disorders of large granular lymphocytes and NK cells. Since then, significant progress was made in our better understanding of immunophenotypic and genotypic characteristics, biology, functions as well as disorders of these cells. Most recently, clinical studies using NK-cell based immunotherapy have shown promising results in treatment of some of malignant diseases. Disorders of large granular lymphocytes and NK cells are rare comprising only about 1% of all lymphoid malignancies in western countries. The rarity of these conditions was a main reason that the progress in our understanding of pathogenesis and development of novel therapeutic approaches has been delayed compared to development in more common B cell lymphoid malignancies. The low incidence of these diseases and scarcity of prospective clinical trials also limit the availability of evidence based research literature as well as comprehensive reviews about NK cell disorders. Thus, the editors decided to take on the challenging task and summarize our current knowledge about malignant and benign diseases of large granular lymphocytes in this book based on the best available evidence. The editors selected topics most relevant to clinical practice in order to provide a useful guide for practicing physicians. Chapters describing four disorders (T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia, chronic lymphoproliferative disorder of NK cells, extranodal NK cell lymphoma and aggressive NK cell leukemia) incorporated into most recent 2016 revision of classification of lymphoid malignancies are separated into experimental, diagnositc and clinical parts for easier understanding and reading. We are aware of challenges and inherited limitations of any larger project like this one due to a rapid progress especially in the field of genomics, which may not be incorporated in this book before it is published. The editors and contributing authors would like to thank the publisher NOVA for their support.

This book reviews current science and applications in fields including thrombosis and hemostasis, signal transduction, and non-thrombotic conditions such as inflammation, allergy and tumor metastasis. It is a detailed, up-to-date, highly referenced text for clinical scientists and physicians, including recent developments in this rapidly expanding field. More than a scientific resource, this is also an authoritative reference and guide to the diagnosis.

John John is a healthy 14 year old, 6ft tall boy that always had a smile on his face. He is an excellent student in school and is well liked by his peers and teachers. Johnathan is like any other kid and enjoys playing games, listening to music, and getting on Facebook to communicate with those near and far. He also loves to play basketball and was recruited by his gym teacher to play for the school team. Then out of the blue, John John became deathly ill. Our whole world changed after then.