scholarly journals Understanding the impact of neurologic complications in patients with cirrhosis

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 205031211983209
Author(s):  
Sanath K Allampati ◽  
Kevin D Mullen

Patients with cirrhosis may experience neurologic complications, including hepatic encephalopathy. Hepatic encephalopathy may be classified as covert (mild symptoms (e.g. lack of awareness)) or overt (moderate to severe symptoms (e.g. confusion or coma)), and symptoms may overlap with other neurologic conditions (e.g. epilepsy, stroke). Managing hepatic encephalopathy includes identifying and treating precipitating factors (e.g. dehydration). First-line treatment for patients with overt hepatic encephalopathy is typically lactulose; to reduce the risk of overt hepatic encephalopathy recurrence, lactulose plus the nonsystemic antibiotic rifaximin is recommended. Rifaximin reduced the risk of breakthrough overt hepatic encephalopathy by 58% versus placebo over 6 months (p < 0.001; 91% of patients in each group were on concomitant lactulose). However, neither pharmacologic hepatic encephalopathy treatment nor liver transplantation may completely reverse neurologic impairment in patients with hepatic encephalopathy. Additional neurologic considerations for patients with cirrhosis include preventing falls, as well as managing sleep-related issues, hyponatremia, and cerebral edema. Thus, monitoring neurologic impairment is an important component in the management of patients with cirrhosis.

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 3745
Author(s):  
Hélène Vellemans ◽  
Marc P. E. André

Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a lymphoid-type hematologic disease that is derived from B cells. The incidence of this lymphoid malignancy is around 2–3/100,000/year in the western world. Long-term remission rates are linked to a risk-adapted approach, which allows remission rates higher than 80%. The first-line treatment for advanced stage classical HL (cHL) widely used today is doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD) or escalated bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone (BEACOPPesc) chemotherapy. Randomized studies comparing these two regimens and a recently performed meta-analysis have demonstrated consistently better disease control with BEACOPPesc. However, this treatment is not the standard of care, as there is an excess of acute hematological toxicities and therapy-related myeloid neoplasms. Moreover, there is a recurrent controversy concerning the impact on overall survival with this regimen. More recently, new drugs such as brentuximab vedotin and checkpoint inhibitors have become available and have been evaluated in combination with doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (AVD) for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced cHL with the objective of tumor control improvement. There are still major debates with respect to first-line treatment of advanced cHL. The use of positron emission tomography-adapted strategies has allowed a reduction in the toxicity of chemotherapy regimens. Incorporation of new drugs into the treatment algorithms requires confirmation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Caterina Strisciuglio ◽  
Felicity Payne ◽  
Komal Nayak ◽  
Marialuisa Andreozzi ◽  
Alessandra Vitale ◽  
...  

AbstractEosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a leading cause of dysphagia and food impaction in children and adults. The diagnosis relies on histological examination of esophageal mucosal biopsies and requires the presence of > 15 eosinophils per high-powered field. Potential pitfalls include the impact of biopsy sectioning as well as regional variations of eosinophil density. We performed genome-wide DNA methylation analyses on 30 esophageal biopsies obtained from children diagnosed with EoE (n = 7) and matched controls (n = 13) at the time of diagnosis as well as following first-line treatment. Analyses revealed striking disease-associated differences in mucosal DNA methylation profiles in children diagnosed with EoE, highlighting the potential for these epigenetic signatures to be developed into clinically applicable biomarkers.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. e0145796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwenan M. Knight ◽  
Gabriela B. Gomez ◽  
Peter J. Dodd ◽  
David Dowdy ◽  
Alice Zwerling ◽  
...  

Blood ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 120 (21) ◽  
pp. 2724-2724 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias J. Rummel ◽  
Norbert Niederle ◽  
Georg Maschmeyer ◽  
G.-Andre Banat ◽  
Ulrich von Grünhagen ◽  
...  

Abstract Abstract 2724 Background: The NHL 1 study, a prospective, multicenter, randomized, phase 3 study which compared B-R and CHOP-R as first-line treatment in indolent lymphomas and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), demonstrated a significant benefit in progression-free survival (PFS) as well as improved tolerability for B-R compared with CHOP-R. Here we present an analysis of the impact of response quality on outcome. Methods: 514 patients (pts) with indolent or MCL were randomized to receive B-R or CHOP-R for a maximum of 6 cycles. Results: The overall response rate in the 514 pts (261 B-R; 253 CHOP-R) was 92.7% and 91.3% in the B-R and CHOP-R arms, respectively (as presented at the last ASCO meeting, J Clin Oncol 30, 2012 (suppl; abstr 3). A complete response (CR) was observed in 39.8% in the B-R arm and in 30% in the CHOP-R arm (p=0.021). The achievement of CR was associated with a significantly prolonged PFS and overall survival (OS) (Table 1). Analysis by treatment arm revealed a trend for superior PFS and a significantly improved OS for patients achieving CR following treatment with B-R. In the CHOP-R arm, patients in CR had a significantly superior PFS compared to those in PR with a trend to superior OS. Regardless of the quality of response, PFS was superior with B-R versus CHOP-R: For patients in CR, the median PFS was not reached with B-R, whereas for CHOP-R it was 53.7 months (p=0.0204). In patients achieving PR, treatment with B-R resulted in a median PFS of 57.2 months, and this was 30.9 months with CHOP-R (p=0.0002). We noted a statistically significant difference in CR rates between male (n=272, median age 63 years) and female (n=242, median age 64 years) patients. The CR rate was 28.6% in male patients and 42.1% in female patients (p=0.0016). Female patients had a longer median PFS (51.4 months) compared to male patients (38.6 months), however, this difference was not statistically significant (p=0.0866). Conclusions: Patients in CR following first-line treatment in our study had a significantly longer PFS and OS compared to those achieving a PR. Therefore, our results strongly suggest an association between quality of response and outcome. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (4_suppl) ◽  
pp. 468-468
Author(s):  
Hui-Li Wong ◽  
Ying Wang ◽  
Yaling Yin ◽  
Hagen F. Kennecke ◽  
Winson Y. Cheung ◽  
...  

468 Background: Chemotherapy options currently available for the first-line treatment of advanced PDAC include FOLFIRINOX (FX), gemcitabine with nab-paclitaxel (GP) and single agent gemcitabine (Gem). GP was introduced most recently and funded for clinical use in British Columbia (BC) in September 2014. In this retrospective analysis, we explore the impact of GP availability on first-line treatment selection and overall survival (OS) in advanced PDAC. Methods: The BC Cancer Agency provincial pharmacy database was used to identify patients (pts) who started FX, GP or Gem between January and August 2014 (pre-GP) or January and August 2015 (post-GP). Pts were eligible for inclusion if they received at least one cycle of first-line therapy for locally advanced or metastatic PDAC. Clinical data were extracted from electronic medical records. OS was defined as time from diagnosis of advanced PDAC to death and compared by treatment era, adjusting for age, ECOG, comorbidities, disease extent and baseline CA19-9. Results: 286 pts fulfilled eligibility criteria: 88 (31%) with locally advanced and 198 (69%) with metastatic disease. 131 and 155 pts were treated in the pre- and post-GP eras respectively. Prior to GP approval, 44% and 49% of pts received Gem and FX; this decreased to 21% and 33% after GP funding, with 46% of pts receiving GP in the latter period. Nine (7%) pts received GP in the pre-GP era, either through self-pay or addition of nab-paclitaxel after approval. There were no significant differences in pt characteristics across both eras. 46% of pts who received GP post approval had ECOG ≥ 2. The proportion of pts receiving second-line therapy was lower in the post-GP era (22% vs. 38%). Median OS in the post-GP era was 8.1 vs. 10.1 months in the pre-GP era; adjusted HR 1.28 (95% CI 0.96–1.71). Pts with ECOG ≥ 2 who received GP had a median OS of 6.5 months. Conclusions: After GP was funded, it became the preferred first-line regimen for advanced PDAC. Its more frequent use instead of FX did not appear to compromise overall survival even though a substantial proportion of pts were ECOG ≥ 2 and few pts received second-line therapy.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 232470961774114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malia Rasa ◽  
James Musgrave ◽  
Keith Abe ◽  
Len Tanaka ◽  
Konstantine Xoinis ◽  
...  

Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) can be classified as typical and atypical, and the treatment recommendations currently differ between the 2 types. Eculizumab is recommended as first-line treatment for atypical HUS; however, its use in typical HUS has been controversial. We report a case of a 10-year-old male with severe neurologic impairment who was successfully treated with eculizumab, which was started 4 days after onset of neurologic symptoms. Our case supports the use of eculizumab in typical HUS with neurologic involvement, even when given later in the course, as the pathophysiology of typical HUS has been shown to involve activation of the complement pathway, similar to atypical HUS. Further studies are required to establish the efficacy and duration of eculizumab use in this patient population.


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