25 research outputs found
Response Assessment to Erythropoietin-Zeta (Epo-Alpha Biosimilar) Therapy in Low-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes
No full textBackground. This prospective observational study aimed to verify the efficacy of erythropoietin zeta in the treatment of patients with low-risk myelodysplastic syndrome. Methods. Patients with low/int-1 IPSS risk and serum erythropoietin level below 500 U/L were enrolled. Treatment consisted of erythropoietin zeta 40,000 U subcutaneously once a week. The primary endpoint was the erythroid response. According to Simon’s two-stage statistical design, 36 patients were recruited. The median age was 75 years (range 56–83 years), male/female ratio was 1.1/1, median baseline serum erythropoietin was 57.9 U/L (range 9.4–475 U/L). 53% of patients had low-risk disease, while the remaining had Int-1 risk. Results. After 8 weeks, a significant response (rise in Hb levels of at least 1.5 g/dL) was achieved in 18 patients (50%) out of 36. However, 17 patients did not improve; 8/17 patients pursued the 40,000 U weekly schedule of erythropoietin zeta, and 4/8 (50%) of them reached the erythroid response after 16 weeks. Nine patients underwent dosage doubling (40,000 U twice per week), and 5/9 (55%) of them achieved the erythroid response. Conclusion. Compared with data from the literature, this prospective study revealed that EPO-zeta is a safe and effective therapeutic option in low-risk MDS patients
Increased Qt Variability In Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy With Subcortical Infarcts And Leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL).
No full textBACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
Although sudden death (SD) accounts for numerous cases of premature mortality in patients with cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL), the risk factors responsible for this dramatic event remain unclear. We sought possible differences in the QT variability index (QTVI) -- a well-known index of temporal dispersion in myocardial repolarization strongly associated with the risk of SD -- between a group of patients with CADASIL and healthy controls.
METHODS:
A total of 13 patients with CADASIL and 13 healthy volunteers underwent a 5-min electrocardiogram recording to calculate the QTVI. All the patients also underwent a clinical assessment, including functional status by Rankin score, and a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scan for quantitative analysis of T2-weighted (T2-W) and T1-weighted (T1-W) lesion volume (LV).
RESULTS:
Short-term QT-interval analysis showed significantly higher QTVI (P = 0.029) in patients than in controls. In patients, notwithstanding the limitations of the small sample size, QTVI also well correlated with T1-W LV (r = 0.747, P = 0.003) and T2-W LV (r = 0.731, P = 0.005).
CONCLUSION:
Because patients with CADASIL have increased temporal cardiac repolarization variability as assessed by QTVI, this mechanism could underlie these patients' risk of SD. Whether this easily assessed, non-invasive marker could be used to stratify the risk of malignant ventricular arrhythmias in patients with CADASIL and, possibly, to guide their therapeutic management warrants confirmation from larger prospective studies
Correction: Need for ICU and outcome of critically ill patients with COVID-19 and haematological malignancies: results from the EPICOVIDEHA survey (Infection, (2024), 52, 3, (1125-1141), 10.1007/s15010-023-02169-7)
No full textAcknowledgements Members of the EPICOVIDEHA registry: Joseph Meletiadis, Florian Reizine, Jan Novák, Summiya Nizamuddin, Roberta Di Blasi, Alexandra Serris, Pavel Jindra, Sylvain Lamure, François Danion, Maria Chiara Tisi, Mario Virgilio Papa, Nurettin Erben, ľuboš DrgoňA, Nathan C. Bahr, Murtadha Al-Khabori, Ayten Shirinova, Jörg Schubert, Lisset Lorenzo De La Peña, José-Ángel Hernández-Rivas, Elena Busch, Josip Batinić, Giuseppe Sapienza, Mohammad Reza Salehi, Reham Abdelaziz Khedr, Nina Khanna, Baerbel Hoell-Neugebauer, Ana Groh, Eleni Gavriilaki, Rita Fazzi, Rémy Duléry, Roberta Della Pepa, Mario Delia, Nicola Coppola, Maria Calbacho, Darko Antić, Hossein Zarrinfer, Ayel Yahia, Vivien Wai-Man, Ana Torres-TIenza, Alina Daniela Tanasa, Andrés Soto-Silva, Laura Serrano, Enrico Schalk, Ikhwan Rinaldi, Gaëtan Plantefeve, Monica Piedimonte, Maria Enza Mitra, Carolina Miranda-Castillo, Jorge Loureiro-Amigo, Ira Lacej, Martin Kolditz, María-Josefa Jiménez-Lorenzo, Guillemette Fouquet, Omar-Francisco Coronel-Ayala, Mathias Brehon, Panagiotis Tsirigotis, Anastasia Antoniadou, Gina Varricchio, Maria Vehreschild, Agostino Tafuri, José-María Ribera-Santa Susana, Joyce Marques De Almeida, María Fernández-Galán, Avinash Aujayeb, Athanasios Tragiannidis, Malgorzata Mikulska, Sein Win, Elizabeth De Kort, Hans-Beier Ommen, Donald C. Vinh, Hans Martin Orth, Sandra Malak, Przemyslaw Zdziarski, Modar Saleh, Chi Shan Kho, Fabio Guolo, M. Mansour Ceesay, Christopher H. Heath, Sergey Gerasymchuk, Monica Fung, Maximilian Desole, Erik De Cabo, Tania Cushion, Fazle Rabbi Chowdhury, Louis Yi Ann Chai, Fevzi Altuntaş, Charlotte Flasshove. The original article has been updated.</p
Correction: Need for ICU and outcome of critically ill patients with COVID-19 and haematological malignancies: results from the EPICOVIDEHA survey (Infection, (2024), 52, 3, (1125-1141), 10.1007/s15010-023-02169-7)
No full textAcknowledgements Members of the EPICOVIDEHA registry: Joseph Meletiadis, Florian Reizine, Jan Novák, Summiya Nizamuddin, Roberta Di Blasi, Alexandra Serris, Pavel Jindra, Sylvain Lamure, François Danion, Maria Chiara Tisi, Mario Virgilio Papa, Nurettin Erben, ľuboš DrgoňA, Nathan C. Bahr, Murtadha Al-Khabori, Ayten Shirinova, Jörg Schubert, Lisset Lorenzo De La Peña, José-Ángel Hernández-Rivas, Elena Busch, Josip Batinić, Giuseppe Sapienza, Mohammad Reza Salehi, Reham Abdelaziz Khedr, Nina Khanna, Baerbel Hoell-Neugebauer, Ana Groh, Eleni Gavriilaki, Rita Fazzi, Rémy Duléry, Roberta Della Pepa, Mario Delia, Nicola Coppola, Maria Calbacho, Darko Antić, Hossein Zarrinfer, Ayel Yahia, Vivien Wai-Man, Ana Torres-TIenza, Alina Daniela Tanasa, Andrés Soto-Silva, Laura Serrano, Enrico Schalk, Ikhwan Rinaldi, Gaëtan Plantefeve, Monica Piedimonte, Maria Enza Mitra, Carolina Miranda-Castillo, Jorge Loureiro-Amigo, Ira Lacej, Martin Kolditz, María-Josefa Jiménez-Lorenzo, Guillemette Fouquet, Omar-Francisco Coronel-Ayala, Mathias Brehon, Panagiotis Tsirigotis, Anastasia Antoniadou, Gina Varricchio, Maria Vehreschild, Agostino Tafuri, José-María Ribera-Santa Susana, Joyce Marques De Almeida, María Fernández-Galán, Avinash Aujayeb, Athanasios Tragiannidis, Malgorzata Mikulska, Sein Win, Elizabeth De Kort, Hans-Beier Ommen, Donald C. Vinh, Hans Martin Orth, Sandra Malak, Przemyslaw Zdziarski, Modar Saleh, Chi Shan Kho, Fabio Guolo, M. Mansour Ceesay, Christopher H. Heath, Sergey Gerasymchuk, Monica Fung, Maximilian Desole, Erik De Cabo, Tania Cushion, Fazle Rabbi Chowdhury, Louis Yi Ann Chai, Fevzi Altuntaş, Charlotte Flasshove. The original article has been updated
Epidemiology of Fungal Infections in Hematological Malignancies in Italy: SEIFEM-2004 Study ( Sorveglianza Epidemiologica Infezioni Fungine Nelle Emopatie Maligne)
No full textPneumocystis Carinii Pneumonia in Patients with Hematological Diseases. A Ten-Years Multicentric Study
No full textSplenic marginal zone lymphoma with or without villous lymphocytes
No full textThe Integruppo Italiano Linfomi (IIL) carried out a study to assess the outcomes of splenic marginal zone lymphoma and to identify prognostic factors in 309 patients. The 5-year cause-specific survival (CSS) rate was 76%. In univariate analysis, the parameters predictive of shorter CSS were hemoglobin levels below 12 g/dL (P < .001), albumin levels below 3.5 g/dL (P = .001), International Prognostic Index (IPI) scores of 2 to 3 (P < .001), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels above normal (P < .001), age older than 60 years (P = .01), platelet counts below 100,000/microL (P = .04), HbsAg-positivity (P = .01), and no splenectomy at diagnosis (P = .006). Values that maintained a negative influence on CSS in multivariate analysis were hemoglobin level less than 12 g/dL, LDH level greater than normal, and albumin level less than 3.5 g/dL. Using these 3 variables, we grouped patients into 3 prognostic categories: low-risk group (41%) with no adverse factors, intermediate-risk group (34%) with one adverse factor, and high-risk group (25%) with 2 or 3 adverse factors. The 5-year CSS rate was 88% for the low-risk group, 73% for the intermediate-risk group, and 50% for the high-risk group. The cause-specific mortality rate (x 1000 person-years) was 20 for the low-risk group, 47 for the intermediate-risk group, and 174 for the high-risk group. This latter group accounted for 54% of all lymphoma-related deaths. In conclusion, with the use of readily available factors, this prognostic index may be an effective tool for evaluating the need for treatment and the intensity of therapy in an individual patient
Seifem 2016 Study: Incidence of Probable and Proven Invasive Aspergillosis in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia during Consolidation Therapy
No full textItalian Prospective study on the Incidence of Probable and Proven Invasive Aspergillosis in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia during Consolidation Therap
Risk of invasive fungal infection in patients affected by acute promyelocytic leukaemia. A report by the SEIFEM-D registry
No full textPatients with acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) are usually considered at lower risk for developing an infectious complication (Girmenia et al, 2003), principally because current treatments are mainly based on the induction of myeloid differentiation rather than the highly myeloablative properties of standard chemotherapy used in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML).
This prospective study, conducted in 33 locations throughout Italy, evaluated the incidence of invasive fungal infection (IFI) and the clinical characteristics in patients with APL compared to patients affected by other AML subtypes treated with intensive chemotherapy
The epidemiology of fungal infections in patients with hematologic malignancies: the SEIFEM-2004 study.
No full textBackground and Objectives. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence and
outcome of invasive fungal infections (IFI) in patients with hematologic malignancies.
Design and Methods. This was a retrospective cohort study of patients admitted
between 1999 and 2003 to 18 hematology wards in Italy. Each participating center
provided information on all patients with newly diagnosed hematologic malignancies
admitted during the survery period and on all episodes of IFI experienced by these
patients.
Results. The cohort was formed of 11,802 patients with hematologic malignacies:
acute leukemia (myeloid 3012, lymphoid 1173), chronic leukemia (myeloid 596, lymphoid
1104), lymphoma (Hodgkin’s 844, non-Hodgkin’s 3457), or multiple myeloma
(1616). There were 538 proven or probable IFI (4.6%); 373 (69%) occurred in
patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Over half (346/538) were caused by molds
(2.9%), in most cases Aspergillus spp. (310/346). The 192 yeast infections (1.6%)
included 175 cases of candidemia. Overall and IFI-attributable mortality rates were
2% (209/11802) and 39% (209/538), respectively. The highest IFI-attributable mortality
rates were associated with zygomycosis (64%) followed by fusariosis (53%),
aspergillosis (42%), and candidemia (33%).
Interpretation and Conclusions. Patients with hematologic malignancies are currently
at higher risk of IFI caused by molds than by yeasts, and the incidence of IFI is
highest among patients with acute myeloid leukemia. Aspergillus spp are still the
most common pathogens, followed by Candida spp. Other agents are rare. The attributable
mortality rate for aspergillosis has dropped from 60-70% to approximately
40%. Candidemia-related mortality remains within the 30-40% range reported in literature
although the incidence has decreased
