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At present there is no specific treatment. Many patients with haemolytic anaemia take folic acid (vitamin B) since the greater turnover of cells consumes this vitamin. During crises transfusion may be required. Clotting problems can occur for which anticoagulation may be needed. Unlike hereditary spherocytosis, splenectomy is contraindicated.
In secondary cases, treatment of the cause, where possible, is indicated. Additionally, treatment for HLH itself is usually required.
While optimal treatment of HLH is still being debated, current treatment regimes usually involve high dose corticosteroids, etoposide and cyclosporin. Intravenous immunoglobulin is also used. Methotrexate and vincristine have also been used. Other medications include cytokine targeted therapy.
An experimental treatment, an anti IFN-gamma monoclonal antibody tentatively named NI-0501, is in clinical trials for treating primary HLH. The FDA awarded breakthrough drug status to NI-0501 in 2016.
The prognosis is guarded with an overall mortality of 50%. Poor prognostic factors included HLH associated with malignancy, with half the patients dying by 1.4 months compared to 22.8 months for non-tumour associated HLH patients.
Secondary HLH in some individuals may be self-limited because patients are able to fully recover after having received only supportive medical treatment (i.e., IV immunoglobulin only). However, long-term remission without the use of cytotoxic and immune-suppressive therapies is unlikely in the majority of adults with HLH and in those with involvement of the central nervous system (brain and/or spinal cord).
The treatment of primary immunodeficiencies depends foremost on the nature of the abnormality. Somatic treatment of primarily genetic defects is in its infancy. Most treatment is therefore passive and palliative, and falls into two modalities: managing infections and boosting the immune system.
Reduction of exposure to pathogens may be recommended, and in many situations prophylactic antibiotics or antivirals may be advised.
In the case of humoral immune deficiency, immunoglobulin replacement therapy in the form of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) or subcutaneous immunoglobulin (SCIG) may be available.
In cases of autoimmune disorders, immunosuppression therapies like corticosteroids may be prescribed.
Bone marrow transplant may be possible for Severe Combined Immune Deficiency and other severe immunodeficiences.
Virus-specific T-Lymphocytes (VST) therapy is used for patients who have received hematopoietic stem cell transplantation that has proven to be unsuccessful. It is a treatment that has been effective in preventing and treating viral infections after HSCT. VST therapy uses active donor T-cells that are isolated from alloreactive T-cells which have proven immunity against one or more viruses. Such donor T-cells often cause acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a subject of ongoing investigation. VSTs have been produced primarily by ex-vivo cultures and by the expansion of T-lymphocytes after stimulation with viral antigens. This is carried out by using donor-derived antigen-presenting cells. These new methods have reduced culture time to 10–12 days by using specific cytokines from adult donors or virus-naive cord blood. This treatment is far quicker and with a substantially higher success rate than the 3–6 months it takes to carry out HSCT on a patient diagnosed with a primary immunodeficiency. T-lymphocyte therapies are still in the experimental stage; few are even in clinical trials, none have been FDA approved, and availability in clinical practice may be years or even a decade or more away.
Treatment of LPLD has two different objectives: immediate prevention of pancreatitis attacks and long term reduction of cardiovascular disease risk. Treatment is mainly based on medical nutrition therapy to maintain plasma triglyceride concentration below 11,3 mmol/L (1000 mg/dL). Maintenance of triglyceride levels below 22,6 mmol/L (2000 mg/dL) prevents in general from recurrent abdominal pain.
Strict low fat diet and avoidance of simple carbohydrates
Restriction of dietary fat to not more than 20 g/day or 15% of the total energy intake is usually sufficient to reduce plasma triglyceride concentration, although many patients report that to be symptom free a limit of less than 10g/day is optimal. Simple carbohydrates should be avoided as well. Medium-chain triglycerides can be used for cooking, because they are absorbed into the portal vein without becoming incorporated into chylomicrons. Fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, and minerals should be supplemented in patients with recurrent pancreatitis since they often have deficiencies as a result of malabsorption of fat. However, the diet approach is difficult to sustain for many of the patients.
Lipid lowering drugs
Lipid-lowering agents such as fibrates and omega-3-fatty acids can be used to lower TG levels in LPLD, however those drugs are very often not effective enough to reach treatment goals in LPLD patients. Statins should be considered to lower elevated non-HDL-Cholesterol.
Additional measures are avoidance of agents known to increase endogenous triglyceride levels, such as alcohol, estrogens, diuretics, isotretinoin, anidepressants (e.g. sertraline) and b-adrenergic blocking agents.
Gene therapy
In 2012, the European Commission approved alipogene tiparvovec (Glybera), a gene therapy for adults diagnosed with familial LPLD (confirmed by genetic testing) and suffering from severe or multiple pancreatitis attacks despite dietary fat restrictions. It was the first gene therapy to receive marketing authorization in Europe; it was priced at about $1 million per treatment, and as of 2016, only one person had been treated with it.
There have been attempts to control the inflammation using drugs that work in other conditions where inflammation is a problem. The most successful of these are steroids, but they have side effects when used long term. Other medications, including methotrexate, colchicine and canakinumab, have been tried with some success. Otherwise, the treatment is supportive, or aimed solely at controlling symptoms and maximizing function.
Attacks are self-limiting, and require analgesia and NSAIDs (such as diclofenac). Colchicine, a drug otherwise mainly used in gout, decreases attack frequency in FMF patients. The exact way in which colchicine suppresses attacks is unclear. While this agent is not without side effects (such as abdominal pain and muscle pains), it may markedly improve quality of life in patients. The dosage is typically 1–2 mg a day. Development of amyloidosis is delayed with colchicine treatment. Interferon is being studied as a therapeutic modality. Some advise discontinuation of colchicine before and during pregnancy, but the data are inconsistent, and others feel it is safe to take colchicine during pregnancy.
Approximately 5–10% of FMF cases are resistant to colchicine therapy alone. In these cases, adding anakinra to the daily colchicine regimen has been successful.
Initial treatment is supportive, with the use of agents to treat cholestasis and pruritus, including the following:
- Ursodeoxycholic acid
- Cholestyramine
- Rifampin
- Naloxone, in refractory cases
The partial external biliary diversion (PEBD) procedure is a surgical approach that diverts bile from the gallbladder externally into an ileostomy bag.
Patients should be supplemented with fat-soluble vitamins, and occasionally medium-chain triglycerides in order to improve growth.
When liver synthetic dysfunction is significant, patients should be listed for transplantation. Family members should be tested for PFIC mutations, in order to determine risk of transmission.
Hereditary stomatocytosis describes a number of inherited autosomal dominant human conditions which affect the red blood cell, in which the membrane or outer coating of the cell 'leaks' sodium and potassium ions.
In 2010, the case of a man with unexplained erythrocytosis and perinephric fluid collection as main features was described in the Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital. As a consequence two strikingly similar cases were identified and a review of the literature revealed three more patients with similar characteristics.
As of December 2014, a total of 9 patients worldwide with the TEMPI syndrome have been identified (D.B.Sykes, Personal Communication).
In terms of their therapy:
- Untreated: 2 patients
- Velcade alone: 5 patients
- Immediate autologous transplant: 1 patient
- Velcade followed by Velcade/Lenalidomide followed by autologous transplant: 1 patient
For treatment of type II, dietary modification is the initial approach, but many patients require treatment with statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) to reduce cardiovascular risk. If the triglyceride level is markedly raised, fibrates (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-alpha agonists) may be preferable due to their beneficial effects. Combination treatment of statins and fibrates, while highly effective, causes a markedly increased risk of myopathy and rhabdomyolysis, so is only done under close supervision. Other agents commonly added to statins are ezetimibe, niacin, and bile acid sequestrants. Dietary supplementation with fish oil is also used to reduce elevated triglycerides, with the greatest effect occurring in patients with the greatest severity. Some evidence exists for benefit of plant sterol-containing products and omega-3 fatty acids.
Neonatal seizures are often controlled with phenobarbital administration. Recurrent seizures later in life are treated in the standard ways (covered in the main epilepsy article). Depending on the severity, some infants are sent home with heart and oxygen monitors that are hooked to the child with stick on electrodes to signal any seizure activity. Once a month the monitor readings are downloaded into a central location for the doctor to be able to read at a future date. This monitor is only kept as a safeguard as usually the medication wards off any seizures. Once the child is weaned off the phenobarbital, the monitor is no longer necessary.
Although the FD-causing gene has been identified and it seems to have tissue specific expression, there is no definitive treatment at present.
Treatment of FD remains preventative, symptomatic and supportive. FD does not express itself in a consistent manner. The type and severity of symptoms displayed vary among patients and even at different ages on the same patients. So patients should have specialized individual treatment plans. Medications are used to control vomiting, eye dryness, and blood pressure. There are some commonly needed treatments including:
1. Artificial tears: using eye drops containing artificial tear solutions (methylcellulose)
2. Feeding: Maintenance of adequate nutrition, avoidance of aspiration; thickened formula and different shaped nipples are used for baby.
3. Daily chest physiotherapy (nebulization, bronchodilators, and postural drainage): for Chronic lung disease from recurrent aspiration pneumonia
4. Special drug management of autonomic manifestations such as vomiting: intravenous or rectal diazepam (0.2 mg/kg q3h) and rectal chloral hydrate (30 mg/kg q6h)
5. Protecting the child from injury (coping with decreased taste, temperature and pain perception)
6. Combating orthostatic hypotension: hydration, leg exercise, frequent small meals, a high-salt diet, and drugs such as fludrocortisone.
7. Treatment of orthopedic problems (tibial torsion and spinal curvature)
8. Compensating for labile blood pressures
There is no cure for Familial Dysautonomia.
Carbamazepine is at least partly effective at reducing the number or severity of attacks in the majority of PEPD patients. High doses of this drug may be required, perhaps explaining the lack of effect in some individuals. While other anti-epileptic drugs, gabapentin and topiramate, have limited effect in some patients, they have not been shown to be generally effective. Opiate derived analgesics are also largely ineffective, with only sporadic cases of beneficial effect.
Since interleukin 1β plays a central role in the pathogenesis of the disease, therapy typically targets this cytokine in the form of monoclonal antibodies (such as canakinumab), binding proteins/traps (such as rilonacept), or interleukin 1 receptor antagonists (such as anakinra). These therapies are generally effective in alleviating symptoms and substantially reducing levels of inflammatory indices. Case reports suggest that thalidomide and the anti-IL-6 receptor antibody tocilizumab may also be effective.
It is nearly always fatal unless, like short bowel syndrome patients, treated with parenteral nutrition or an intestinal transplant. The patient is often classified as being in "intestinal failure" and treated with the cohort of patients known as "short bowel syndrome" patients.
Patients and their parents must receive psychotherapy, which should include marriage counselling. Mitigation of lasting psychological problems, including depression secondary to chronic illness and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), can be very successfully addressed with early interventions. This care may come from the family physician, or other attending physician, whoever is more appropriate; specialist care is generally not required. Lewis and Vitulano (2003) note several studies suggesting predisposal for psychopathology in paediatric patients with chronic illness. Esch (2002) advocates preventive psychiatry supports to facilitate balance of positive and negative stressors associated with chronic physical pathology. Patients with FSS should have pre-emptive and ongoing mixed cognitive therapy-psychodynamic psychotherapy for patients with FSS and cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), if begun after onset of obvious pathology.
Adler (1995) cautioned the failure of modern medicine to implement the biopsychosocial model, which incorporates all aspects of a patient’s experience in a scientific approach into the clinical picture, often results in chronically-ill patients deferring to non-traditional and alternative forms of therapy, seeking to be understood as a whole, not a part, which may be problematic among patients with FSS.
Furthermore, neuropsychiatry, physiological, and imaging studies have shown PTSD and depression to be physical syndromes, in many respects, as they are psychiatric ones in demonstrating limbic system physiological and anatomy disturbances. Attendant PTSD hyperarousal symptoms, which additionally increase physiological stress, may play a part in leading to frequent MH-like hyperpyrexia and speculate on its influence on underlying myopathology of FSS in other ways. PTSD may also bring about developmental delays or developmental stagnation, especially in paediatric patients.
With psychodynamic psychotherapy, psychopharmacotherapy may need to be considered. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is advised against, in light of abnormal myophysiology, with predisposal to MH.
Patients must have early consultation with craniofacial and orthopaedic surgeons, when craniofacial, clubfoot, or hand correction is indicated to improve function or aesthetics. Operative measures should be pursued cautiously, with avoidance of radical measures and careful consideration of the abnormal muscle physiology in Freeman–Sheldon syndrome. Unfortunately, many surgical procedures have suboptimal outcomes, secondary to the myopathy of the syndrome.
When operative measures are to be undertaken, they should be planned for as early in life as is feasible, in consideration of the tendency for fragile health. Early interventions hold the possibility to minimise developmental delays and negate the necessity of relearning basic functions.
Due to the abnormal muscle physiology in Freeman–Sheldon syndrome, therapeutic measures may have unfavourable outcomes. Difficult endotracheal intubations and vein access complicate operative decisions in many DA2A patients, and malignant hyperthermia (MH) may affect individuals with FSS, as well. Cruickshanks et al. (1999) reports uneventful use of non-MH-triggering agents. Reports have been published about spina bifida occulta in anaesthesia management and cervical kyphoscoliosis in intubations.
The outlook for patients with FD depends on the particular diagnostic category. Patients with chronic, progressive, generalized dysautonomia in the setting of central nervous system degeneration have a generally poor long-term prognosis. Death can occur from pneumonia, acute respiratory failure, or sudden cardiopulmonary arrest in such patients.
Parents and patients should generally be educated regarding daily eye care and early warning signs of corneal problems as well as the use of punctal cautery. This education has resulted in decreased corneal scarring and need for more aggressive surgical measures such as tarsorrhaphy, conjunctival flaps, and corneal transplants.
Overall, the prognosis for patients with NOMID is not good, though many (80%) live into adulthood, and a few appear to do relatively well. They are at risk for leukemia, infections, and some develop deposits of protein aggregated called amyloid, which can lead to kidney failure and other problems. The neurologic problems are most troubling. The finding that other diseases are related and a better understanding of where the disease comes from may lead to more effective treatments.
As reported by Dispenzieri "et al." Mayo Clinic treatment regimens are tailored to treat the clinical manifestations and prognosis for the rate of progression of the POEMS syndrome in each patient. In rare cases, patients may have minimal or no symptoms at presentation or after successful treatment of their disorder. These patients may be monitored every 2–3 months for symptoms and disease progression. Otherwise, treatment is divided based on the local versus systemic spread of its clonal plasma cells. Patients with one or two plasmacytoma bone lesions and no clonal plasma cells in their bone marrow biopsy specimens are treated by surgical removal or radiotherapy of their tumors. These treatments can relieve many of the syndromes clinical manifestations including neuropathies, have a 10-year overall survival of 70% and a 6-year progression-free survival of 62%. Patients with >2 plasmacytoma bone lesions and/or increases in bone marrow clonal plasma cells are treated with a low-dose or high-dose chemotherapy regimen, i.e. a corticosteroid such as dexamethasone plus an alkylating agents such as melphalan. Dosage regimens are selected on the basis of patient tolerance. Hematological response rates to the dexamethasone/melphalan regimens have been reported to be in the 80% range with neurological response rates approaching 100%. Patients successfully treated with the high-dose dexamethasone/melphalan regimen have been further treated with autologous stem cell transplantation. In 59 patients treated with the chemotherapy/transplantation regimen, the Mayo Clinic reported progression-free survival rates of 98%, 94%, and 75% at 1, 2, and 5 years, respectively.
Other treatment regiments are being studied. Immunomodulatory imide drugs such as thalidomide and lenalidomide have been used in combination with dexamethasone to treat POEMS syndrome patients. While the mechanism of action fo these immunomodulators are not clear, they do inhibit the production of cytokines suspected of contributing to POEMS syndrome such as VEGF, TNFα, and IL-6 and stimulate T cells and NK cells to increase their production of interferon gamma and interleukin 2 (see immunomodulatory imide drug's mechanism of action). A double blind study of 25 POEMS syndrome patients found significantly better results (VEGF reduction, neuromuscular function improvement, quality of life improvement) in patients treated with thalidomide plus dexamethasone compared to patients treated with a thalidomide placebo plus dexamethasone.
Since VEGF plays a central role in the symptoms of POEMS syndrome, some have tried bevacizumab, a monoclonal antibody directed against VEGF. While some reports were positive, others have reported capillary leak syndrome suspected to be the result of overly rapid lowering of VEGF levels. It therefore remains doubtful as to whether this will become part of standard treatment for POEMS syndrome.
Weight loss and dietary modification are effective first-line lifestyle modification treatments for hypertriglyceridemia. For people with mildly or moderately high levels of triglycerides lifestyle changes including weight loss and dietary modification are recommended. This may include restriction of carbohydrates (specifically fructose) and fat in the diet. Medications are recommended in those with high levels of triglycerides that are not corrected with the aforementioned lifestyle modifications, with fibrates being recommended first.
The decision to treat hypertriglyceridemia with medication depends on the levels and on the presence of other risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Very high levels that would increase the risk of pancreatitis is treated with a drug from the fibrate class. Niacin and omega-3 fatty acids as well as drugs from the statin class may be used in conjunction, with statins being the main medication for moderate hypertriglyceridemia when reduction of cardiovascular risk is required.
Polycythemia (also known as polycythaemia or polyglobulia) is a disease state in which the hematocrit (the volume percentage of red blood cells in the blood) is elevated.
It can be due to an increase in the number of red blood cells ("absolute polycythemia") or to a decrease in the volume of plasma ("relative polycythemia"). Polycythemia is sometimes called erythrocytosis, but the terms are not synonymous, because polycythemia refers to any increase in red blood cells, whereas erythrocytosis only refers to a documented increase of red cell mass.
The emergency treatment of polycythemia (e.g., in hyperviscosity or thrombosis) is by phlebotomy (removal of blood from the circulation). Depending on the underlying cause, phlebotomy may also be used on a regular basis to reduce the hematocrit. Cytostatics such as busulfan and hydroxyurea are sometimes used for long-term management of polycythemia.
Primary polycythemias are due to factors intrinsic to red cell precursors. Polycythemia vera (PCV), polycythemia rubra vera (PRV), or erythremia, occurs when excess red blood cells are produced as a result of an abnormality of the bone marrow. Often, excess white blood cells and platelets are also produced. PCV is classified as a myeloproliferative disease. Symptoms include headaches and vertigo, and signs on physical examination include an abnormally enlarged spleen and/or liver. In some cases, affected individuals may have associated conditions including high blood pressure or formation of blood clots. Transformation to acute leukemia is rare. Phlebotomy is the mainstay of treatment. A hallmark of polycythemia is an elevated hematocrit, with Hct > 55% seen in 83% of cases. A somatic (non-hereditary) mutation (V617F) in the "JAK2" gene is found in 95% of cases, though also present in other myeloproliferative disorders.
Primary familial polycythemia, also known as primary familial and congenital polycythemia (PFCP), exists as a benign hereditary condition, in contrast with the myeloproliferative changes associated with acquired PCV. In many families, PFCP is due to an autosomal dominant mutation in the "EPOR" erythropoietin receptor gene. PFCP can cause an increase of up to 50% in the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood; skier Eero Mäntyranta had PFCP, which is considered to have given him a large advantage in endurance events.