1,721,375 research outputs found

    Neurological manifestations in autoinflammatory diseases

    No full text
    Autoinflammatory diseases (AIDs) are a distinct group of diseases characterised by a dysregulation of the innate immune response leading to systemic inflammation. The clinical spectrum of these conditions is extremely variable and possibly every system and tissue can be involved, including the central nervous system (CNS). Indeed, neurological manifestations may dominate the clinical picture from disease onset in some rare conditions. However, the involvement of the CNS in AIDs is not a disease in itself, but represents a rare complication which is consequent to a systemic or local immune response, mainly involving cells of the innate immunity. This review will describe neurological manifestations associated with AIDs, including: chronic aseptic meningitis and brain atrophy, sensorineural hearing loss, early-onset haemorrhagic and ischaemic strokes, mental retardation, cerebellitis, and ataxia, and severe encephalopathy with brain calcifications

    Socio-economic analysis over a long period of a patient with chronic infantile neurological cutaneous and articular syndrome (CINCA)

    No full text
    We present the socio-economic consequences of the chronic infantile neurological cutaneous and articular syndrome (CINCA), one of the various forms of the cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS), through the analysis of the 18 years-long story of one patient. We interviewed the patient and his mother and collected clinical documentation to estimate his life-time costs from the perspectives of the healthcare system and society. Total societal and healthcare costs amount to €178,394 and €137,272, respectively. For about 12 years the patient was not correctly diagnosed; health care costs in this period amounted to €81,280, mainly due to hospital care. After the disease was diagnosed, the pattern of costs dramatically changed with a sharp reduction of hospital costs and an increase of costs for medical therapy. This socioeconomic case-study illustrates the categories of costs that may be associated to patients with rare diseases and suggests that prompter diagnosis and adequate therapies may be also beneficial from a socio-economic perspective. © 2010 Adis Data Information BV

    Monogenetic causes of chilblains, panniculitis and vasculopathy: the Type I interferonopathies

    No full text
    Type I interferonopathies are a clinically heterogeneous group of inherited disorders of the innate immune system characterized by constitutive activation of the type I interferon signaling pathway. Cutaneous vasculopathy, lipodystrophy, interstitial lung disease and brain calcifications are the typical manifestations characterizing affected patients. The pathogenic mechanism commonly underlying these disorders is the abnormal activation of immune pathways involved in recognition of non-self-oligonucleotides. These natural defenses against virus consent humans to survive the infections. Target therapies capable of inhibiting type I interferon signaling pathway seem effective in these patients, albeit with possible incomplete responses and severe side effects

    Actin Remodeling Defects Leading to Autoinflammation and Immune Dysregulation

    No full text
    A growing number of monogenic immune-mediated diseases have been related to genes involved in pathways of actin cytoskeleton remodeling. Increasing evidences associate cytoskeleton defects to autoinflammatory diseases and primary immunodeficiencies. We reviewed the pathways of actin cytoskeleton remodeling in order to identify inflammatory and immunological manifestations associated to pathological variants. We list more than twenty monogenic diseases, ranging from pure autoinflammatory conditions as familial Mediterranean fever, mevalonate kinase deficiency and PAPA syndrome, to classic and novel primary immunodeficiencies as Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome and DOCK8 deficiency, characterized by the presence of concomitant inflammatory and autoimmune manifestations, such as vasculitis and cytopenia, to severe and recurrent infections. We classify these disorders according to the role of the mutant gene in actin cytoskeleton remodeling, and in particular as disorders of transcription, elongation, branching and activation of actin. This expanding field of rare immune disorders offers a new perspective to all immunologists to better understand the physiological and pathological role of actin cytoskeleton in cells of innate and adaptive immunity
    corecore