scholarly journals Topical Immunomodulation with Diphenlycyclopropenone for Alopecia Areata

2019 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-142
Author(s):  
Ana Sofia Borges ◽  
Ana Brasileiro ◽  
Rita Ramos Pinheiro ◽  
André Lencastre

Introduction: Topical immunotherapy with diphenylcyclopropenone is a treatment option for patients with refractory or extensive alopecia areata. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy and tolerability of diphenylcyclopropenone therapy, in patients with alopecia areata, and identify possible prognostic factors that predict response to treatment. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study that included all patients diagnosed with alopecia areata and treated with diphenylcyclopropenone at our Department. Results: Twenty one patients were included for analysis (15 females and 6 males). Overall, nine patients (42.9%) had some hair regrowth with diphenylcyclopropenone therapy. Of these, five (55.6%) achieved pigmented terminal hair regrowth but with persistent patches of alopecia. Only one patient achieved > 90% of hair regrowth. Older age at onset, broader extent of alopecia at baseline and presence of nail dystrophy were all negative prognostic factors (p < 0.05). Atopy and thyroid dysfunction were not statistically significant as predictors of poor treatment outcome. Adverse effects were documented in 15 patients, most of them were mild and did not lead to treatment interruption. Conclusion: Diphenylcyclopropenone therapy is a viable treatment option in patients with extensive alopecia areata, although the response is partial in the majority of the cases. Limitations of this study include its retrospective nature and the limited number of patients.

Cephalalgia ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Obermann ◽  
MS Yoon ◽  
K Sensen ◽  
M Maschke ◽  
HC Diener ◽  
...  

This prospective, open-label study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of pregabalin treatment in patients suffering from trigeminal neuralgia with and without concomitant facial pain. Fifty-three patients with trigeminal neuralgia (14 with concomitant chronic facial pain) received pregabalin (PGB) 150-600 mg daily and were prospectively followed for 1 year. The primary outcome was number of patients pain free or with reduction of pain intensity by > 50% and of attack frequency by > 50% after 8 weeks. Secondary outcome was sustained pain relief after 1 year. Thirty-nine patients (74%) improved after 8 weeks with a mean dose of 269.8 mg/day (range 150-600 mg/day) PGB: 13 (25%) experienced complete pain relief and 26 (49%) reported pain reduction > 50%, whereas 14 (26%) did not improve. Patients without concomitant facial pain showed better response rates (32 of 39, 82%) compared with patients with concomitant chronic facial pain (7 of 14, 50%, P = 0.020). Concomitant chronic facial pain appears to be a clinical predictor of poor treatment outcome. PGB appears to be effective in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia.


2002 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-453 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Ciesla ◽  
John E. Roberts

The study this article is based on investigated the role of self-directed attention in the maintenance of depressive episodes. Measures of rumination and self-consciousness were used to predict response to treatment for depression. Further, the study investigated the potential interplay between self-directed attention and negative cognition. Thirty-two participants completed measures of rumination, private self-consciousness, and negative cognition prior to receiving group psychoeducational treatment for depression. Analyses revealed that although the main effects of measures of self-directed attention and negative cognition were not statistically significant, the interaction between self-directed thought (particularly rumination) and negative cognitive style predicted change in severity of depressive symptoms over the course of the treatment program. These findings suggest that the degree to which heightened self-directed attention contributes to poor treatment outcome for depression varies as a function of cognitive style.


2003 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 1038-1060 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pélagie M. Beeson ◽  
Kindle Rising ◽  
Jennifer Volk

Writing treatment that involved repeated copying and recall of target words was implemented with 8 individuals with severe aphasia in order to discern the best candidates for the treatment. Four of the 8 participants had strong positive responses to the copy and recall treatment (CART), relearning spellings for 15 targeted words during 10 to 12 weeks of treatment and up to 5 additional words during a month-long homework-based program. Of the 4 other participants, 3 learned the spellings of some target words but failed to reach criterion, and 1 had a poor treatment outcome. Insights regarding possible factors that limited success were gained by examination of individual responses to treatment as well as performance on the pretreatment assessments of semantic, phonological, and orthographic processes. Among the factors associated with success were (a) consistent, accurate completion of daily homework, (b) a relatively preserved semantic system, (c) the ability to discern words from nonwords, and (d) adequately preserved nonverbal visual problem-solving skills. Aphasia severity and minimal pretreatment spelling abilities did not necessarily limit the response to treatment. Participants with positive treatment outcomes demonstrated improved spelling of target words following repeated copying within a single treatment session, and accurately completed daily writing homework. Thus, pretreatment assessment and stimulability within initial treatment sessions provided indications of likely outcome.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (17) ◽  
pp. 2792-2813
Author(s):  
Martina Strudel ◽  
Lucia Festino ◽  
Vito Vanella ◽  
Massimiliano Beretta ◽  
Francesco M. Marincola ◽  
...  

Background: A better understanding of prognostic factors and biomarkers that predict response to treatment is required in order to further improve survival rates in patients with melanoma. Predictive Biomarkers: The most important histopathological factors prognostic of worse outcomes in melanoma are sentinel lymph node involvement, increased tumor thickness, ulceration and higher mitotic rate. Poorer survival may also be related to several clinical factors, including male gender, older age, axial location of the melanoma, elevated serum levels of lactate dehydrogenase and S100B. Predictive Biomarkers: Several biomarkers have been investigated as being predictive of response to melanoma therapies. For anti-Programmed Death-1(PD-1)/Programmed Death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1) checkpoint inhibitors, PD-L1 tumor expression was initially proposed to have a predictive role in response to anti-PD-1/PD-L1 treatment. However, patients without PD-L1 expression also have a survival benefit with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapy, meaning it cannot be used alone to select patients for treatment, in order to affirm that it could be considered a correlative, but not a predictive marker. A range of other factors have shown an association with treatment outcomes and offer potential as predictive biomarkers for immunotherapy, including immune infiltration, chemokine signatures, and tumor mutational load. However, none of these have been clinically validated as a factor for patient selection. For combined targeted therapy (BRAF and MEK inhibition), lactate dehydrogenase level and tumor burden seem to have a role in patient outcomes. Conclusions: With increasing knowledge, the understanding of melanoma stage-specific prognostic features should further improve. Moreover, ongoing trials should provide increasing evidence on the best use of biomarkers to help select the most appropriate patients for tailored treatment with immunotherapies and targeted therapies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Habteyes H. Tola ◽  
Kourosh Holakouie-Naieni ◽  
Mohammad A. Mansournia ◽  
Mehdi Yaseri ◽  
Ephrem Tesfaye ◽  
...  

AbstractTreatment interruption is one of the main risk factors of poor treatment outcome and occurrence of additional drug resistant tuberculosis. This study is a national retrospective cohort study with 10 years follow up period in MDR-TB patients in Ethiopia. We included 204 patients who had missed the treatment at least for one day over the course of the treatment (exposed group) and 203 patients who had never interrupted the treatment (unexposed group). We categorized treatment outcome into successful (cured or completed) and unsuccessful (lost to follow up, failed or died). We described treatment interruption by the length of time between interruptions, time to first interruption, total number of interruption episodes and percent of missed doses. We used Poisson regression model with robust standard error to determine the association between treatment interruption and outcome. 82% of the patients interrupted the treatment in the first six month of treatment period, and considerable proportion of patients demonstrated long intervals between two consecutive interruptions. Treatment interruption was significantly associated with unsuccessful treatment outcome (Adjusted Risk Ratio (ARR) = 1.9; 95% CI (1.4–2.6)). Early identification of patients at high risk of interruption is vital in improving successful treatment outcome.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 245
Author(s):  
Laura Cortesi ◽  
Claudia Piombino ◽  
Angela Toss

The homologous recombination repair (HRR) pathway repairs double-strand DNA breaks, mostly by BRCA1 and BRCA2, although other proteins such as ATM, CHEK2, and PALB2 are also involved. BRCA1/2 germline mutations are targeted by PARP inhibitors. The aim of this commentary is to explore whether germline mutations in HRR-related genes other than BRCA1/2 have to be considered as prognostic factors or predictive to therapies by discussing the results of two articles published in December 2020. The TBCRC 048 trial published by Tung et al. showed an impressive objective response rate to olaparib in metastatic breast cancer patients with germline PALB2 mutation compared to germline ATM and CHEK2 mutation carriers. Additionally, Yadav et al. observed a significantly longer overall survival in pancreatic adenocarcinoma patients with germline HRR mutations compared to non-carriers. In our opinion, assuming that PALB2 is a high-penetrant gene with a key role in the HRR system, PALB2 mutations are predictive factors for response to treatment. Moreover, germline mutations in the ATM gene provide a better outcome in pancreatic adenocarcinoma, being more often associated to wild-type KRAS. In conclusion, sequencing of HRR-related genes other than BRCA1/2 should be routinely offered as part of a biological characterization of pancreatic and breast cancers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Isaksson ◽  
Ata Ghaderi ◽  
Martina Wolf-Arehult ◽  
Mia Ramklint

Abstract Background Personality has been suggested to be an important factor in understanding onset, maintenance, and recovery from eating disorders (ED). The objective of the current study was to evaluate personality style in different ED diagnostic groups as classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth edition (DSM-5). Methods The overcontrolled, undercontrolled, and resilient personality styles were compared in four groups of patients with EDs: anorexia nervosa restricting (ANr) (n = 34), anorexia nervosa binge eating/purging (ANbp) (n = 31), atypical anorexia nervosa (AAN) (n = 29), and bulimia nervosa (BN) (n = 76). These groups were compared with a group of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) (n = 108), and a non-clinical group (NC) (n = 444). Patient data were collected at two outpatient clinics in Uppsala, Sweden. NC control data were collected through convenience sampling. Participants filled out questionnaires assessing personality style. Results The main findings were more pronounced overcontrol reported by the ANr and AAN groups compared with the BN, BPD, and NC groups, and no significant difference in resilience between the ED and the NC groups. Considerable variability of over- and undercontrol was also found within each group. Conclusions The results replicate previous findings when EDs are classified according to current diagnostic criteria (DSM-5). Taking personality styles into account may improve our understanding of certain characteristics in EDs, such as social deficits and rigidity that are attributed to poor treatment outcome.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Forde ◽  
Andrew T King ◽  
Scott A Rutherford ◽  
Charlotte Hammerbeck-Ward ◽  
Simon K Lloyd ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Limited data exists on the disease course of Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2) to guide clinical trial design. Methods A prospective database of patients meeting NF2 diagnostic criteria, reviewed between 1990–2020, was evaluated. Follow-up to first vestibular schwannoma (VS) intervention and death was assessed by univariate analysis and stratified by age at onset, era referred and inheritance type. Interventions for NF2-related tumours were assessed. Cox regression was performed to determine the relationship between individual factors from time of diagnosis to NF2-related death. Results Three-hundred-and-fifty-three patients were evaluated. During 4643.1 follow-up years from diagnosis to censoring 60 patients (17.0%) died. The annual mean number of patients undergoing VS surgery or radiotherapy declined, from 4.66 and 1.65 respectively per 100 NF2 patients in 1990-1999 to 2.11 and 1.01 in 2010-2020, as the number receiving bevacizumab increased (2.51 per 100 NF2 patients in 2010-2020). Five patients stopped bevacizumab to remove growing meningioma or spinal schwannoma. 153/353 (43.3%) had at least one neurosurgical intervention/radiation treatment within 5 years of diagnosis. Patients asymptomatic at diagnosis had longer time to intervention and better survival compared to those presenting with symptoms. Those symptomatically presenting &lt;16 and &gt;40 years had poorer overall survival than those presenting at 26-39 years (P=0.03 and P=0.02 respectively) but those presenting between 16-39 had shorter time to VS intervention. Individuals with de novo constitutional variants had worse survival than those with de novo mosaic or inherited disease (P=0.004). Conclusion Understanding disease course improves prognostication, allowing for better informed decisions about care.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 117955142110049
Author(s):  
Getu Melesie Taye ◽  
Amente Jorise Bacha ◽  
Fetene Abeje Taye ◽  
Mohammed Hussen Bule ◽  
Gosaye Mekonen Tefera

Background: Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) is the most common and yet potentially life-threatening acute complication of diabetes that progresses rapidly to death and requires immediate medical intervention. Objective: To assess the DKA management and treatment outcome/in-hospital mortality and its predictors among hospitalized patients with DKA at the Medical ward of Shashemene Referral Hospital (SRH). Method: A retrospective study was conducted at the Medical Ward of SRH from 01 February 2015 to 31 January 2017. A systematic random sampling technique was used to select study subjects based on the inclusion criteria. Thus, of 236 reviewed charts, only 225 patients with DKA fulfilled inclusion criteria. Treatment outcome was considered good for patients who have shown improvement at discharge, while poor for patients who left against medical advice or died in the hospital. Logistic regression analysis was done to determine independent predictors for treatment outcome/in-hospital mortality using SPSS version 20 with statistical significant at P ⩽ .05. Results: Of 225 patients with DKA, 124 (55.1%) were male. Regular insulin was prescribed to all patients and antibiotics were administered to 87 (38.7%). Potassium supplementation was given only for 28 (12.4%). Non-adherence to insulin treatment (n = 91; 40.4%) and infection (n = 66; 29.3%) were the principal DKA precipitating factors. Even though 73.8% of hospitalized patients with DKA have shown good treatment outcomes, DKA contributed 12% in-hospital mortality. The result of multivariate logistic regression analysis shown that hypoglycemia is the only independent predictor for in-hospital mortality[ P = .03]. Moreover, the independent predictors for poor DKA treatment outcome were found to be smoker [ P = .04], Urinary tract infection (UTI) relative to other co-morbid condition [ P < .001], severe hypokalemia which increase risk of poor treatment outcome by around 4 times [ P = .02], and use of Metronidazole as a concurrent medication relative to other concurrent medication [ P = .03]. Conclusion: There was a high in-hospital mortality rate due to correctable causes. This mortality is unacceptable as it was majorly related to the poor practice of potassium supplementation and hypoglycemia due to insulin. Thus, clinicians and stakeholders should have to focus on modifiable factors (hypokalemia, UTI, and hypoglycemia) to reduce poor treatment outcome/in-hospital mortality.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (11) ◽  
pp. 1485-1492
Author(s):  
Xiaochun Yi ◽  
Jie Zhang ◽  
Huixiang Liu ◽  
Tianxia Yi ◽  
Yuhua Ou ◽  
...  

The adverse clinical result and poor treatment outcome in recurrent spontaneous abortion (RSA) make it necessary to understand the pathogenic mechanism. The mating combination CBA/J × DBA/2 has been widely used as an abortion-prone model compared to DBA/2-mated CBA/J mice. Here, we used RNA-seq to get a comprehensive catalogue of genes differentially expressed between survival placenta in abortion-prone model and control. Five hundred twenty-four differentially expressed genes were obtained followed by clustering analysis, Gene Ontology analysis, and pathway analysis. We paid more attention to immune-related genes namely “immune response” and “immune system process” including 33 downregulated genes and 28 upregulated genes. Twenty-one genes contribute to suppressing immune system and 7 are against it. Six genes were validated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, namely Ccr1l1, Tlr4, Tgf-β1, Tyro3, Gzmb, and Il-1β. Furthermore, Tlr4, Tgf-β1, and Il-1β were analyzed by Western blot. Such immune profile gives us a better understanding of the complicated immune processing in RSA and immunosuppression can rescue pregnancy loss.


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