It should be noted that the very promising results of clinical evaluation in this study have been achieved with samples from Dutch patients. Currently half of the infections are acquired in The Netherlands where the serovars Copenhageni, Icterohaemorrhagiae and Grippotyphosa are dominant. This might induce a bias of the performance of the test. For this reason, the last stages of the OIE Dalcetrapib validation scheme include field studies at other laboratories to assess clinical sensitivity and specificity under different circumstances. We are currently aiming at the implementation and evaluation of the test in endemic areas with a variety of causative serovars. In this study, culture and serology were considered as gold standard to estimate the clinical sensitivity and specificity in order to measure eventual bias of the results of high bacterial loads in culture and PCR positive samples alone. The overall sensitivity and specificity in this study were estimated as 93% and 100%, respectively. The assay showed complete reproducibility and repeatability as well as high level of robustness since changing in critical PCR parameters has no or slight influence on overall results. Testing kidney, lung and liver from two early deceased patients as well as some rodent kidneys proved clearly the usefulness of the real-time PCR as an effective tool for the detection of Leptospira in the distinct tissues. This shows the applicability of real-time PCR as a suitable diagnostic tool on post-mortem samples, overcoming the failure to confirm leptospirosis of early deceased patients by serology. Diabetic retinopathy is the most common complication of Chlorambucil diabetes and one of the leading causes of preventable blindness. Current treatments for DR are applicable only at advanced stages of the disease and are associated with significant adverse effects. Therefore, new pharmacological treatments for the early stages of the disease are needed. However, the mechanisms involved in the onset of DR are still poorly understood.Emerging evidence suggests that retinal neurodegeneration is an early event in the pathogenesis of DR which participates in the microcirculatory abnormalities that occur in DR.