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Primary prophylaxis with low-molecular weight heparin, heparin, or warfarin is often considered in known familial cases. Anticoagulant prophylaxis is given to all who develop a venous clot regardless of underlying cause.
Studies have demonstrated an increased risk of recurrent venous thromboembolic events in patients with protein C deficiency. Therefore, long-term anticoagulation therapy with warfarin may be considered in these patients.
Homozygous protein C defect constitutes a potentially life-threatening disease, and warrants the use of supplemental protein C concentrates.
Liver transplant may be considered curative for homozygous protein C deficiency.
Treatment consists of vitamin K supplementation. This is often given prophylactically to newborns shortly after birth.
In terms of hemophilia C medication cyklokapron is often used for both treatment after an incident of bleeding and as a preventative measure to avoid excessive bleeding during oral surgery.
Treatment is usually not necessary, except in relation to operations, leading to many of those having the condition not being aware of it. In these cases, fresh frozen plasma or recombinant factor XI may be used, but only if necessary.
The afflicted may often suffer nosebleeds, while females can experience unusual menstrual bleeding which can be avoided by taking birth control such as: IUDs and oral or injected contraceptives to increase coagulation ability by adjusting hormones to levels similar to pregnancy.
Individuals with hypofibrinogenemia who have a history of excessive bleeding should be treated at a center specialized in treating hemophilia and avoid all medications that interfere with normal platelet function. During bleeding episodes, treatment with fibrinogen concentrates or, if unavailable infusion of fresh frozen plasma and/or cryoprecipitate (a fibrinogen-rich plasma fraction) to maintain fibrinogen activity levels >1 gram/liter.
Individuals with hypofibrinogenemia who experience episodic thrombosis should also be treated at a center specialized in treating hemophilia. Standard recommendations for these individuals are that they use antithrombotic agents and be instructed on antithrombotic behavioral methods in high risk situations (e.g. long car rides and air flights]]. Acute venous thrombosis episodes should be treated with low molecular weight heparin for a time that depends on personal and family history of thrombosis events. Prophylactic treatment prior to minor surgery should avoid fibrinogen supplementation and use anticoagulation measures; prior to major surgery, fibrinogen supplementation should be used only if serious bleeding occurs; otherwise, prophylactic anticoagulation measures are recommended.
In terms of management for complement deficiency, immunosuppressive therapy should be used depending on the disease presented. A C1-INH concentrate can be used for angio-oedema (C1-INH deficiency).
Pneumococcus and haemophilus infections prevention can be taken via immunization for those with complement deficiency. Epsilon-aminocaproic acid could be used to treat hereditary C1-INH deficiency, though the possible side effect of intravascular thrombosis should be weighed.
There are several treatments available for factor VII deficiency; they all replace deficient FVII.
1. Recombinant FVIIa concentrate (rFVIIa) is a recombinant treatment that is highly effective and has no risk of fluid overload or viral disease. It may be the optimal therapy.
2. Plasma derived Factor VII concentrate (pdFVII) : This treatment is suitable for surgery but can lead to thrombosis. It is virus attenuated.
3. Prothrombin complex concentrate (PCC) containing factor VII: this treatment is suitable for surgery, but has a risk of thrombosis. It is virus attenuated.
4. Fresh frozen plasma (FFP): This is relatively inexpensive and readily available. While effective this treatment carries a risk of blood-borne viruses and fluid overload.
Early stage sepsis-associated purpura fulminans may be reversible with quick therapeutic intervention. Treatment is mainly removing the underlying cause and degree of clotting abnormalities and with supportive treatment (antibiotics, volume expansion, tissue oxygenation, etc.). Thus, treatment includes aggressive management of the septic state.
Purpura fulminans with disseminated intravascular coagulation should be urgently treated with fresh frozen plasma (10–20 mL/kg every 8–12 hours) and/or protein C concentrate to replace pro-coagulant and anticoagulant plasma proteins that have been depleted by the disseminated intravascular coagulation process.
Protein C in plasma in the steady state has a half life of 6- to 10-hour, therefore, patients with severe protein C deficiency and presenting with purpura fulminans can be treated acutely with an initial bolus of protein C concentrate 100 IU/kg followed by 50 IU /kg every 6 hours. A total of 1 IU/kg of protein C concentrate or 1 mL/kg of fresh frozen plasma will increase the plasma concentration of protein C by 1 IU/dL. Cases with comorbid pathological bleeding may require additional transfusions with platelet concentrate (10–15 mL/kg) or cryoprecipitate (5 mL/kg).
Established soft tissue necrosis may require surgical removal of the dead tissue, fasciotomy, amputation or reconstructive surgery.
There are too few cases of fibrinogen storage disease to establish optimal treatments for the liver diseases. Management of the disorder has been based on general recommendations for patients with liver disease, particularly Alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency-associated liver disease. In the latter disease, autophagy, the pathway that cells use to dispose of dysfunctional or excessively stored components including proteins, has been targeted using autophagy-enhancing drugs, e.g. carbamazepine, vitamin E, and ursodeoxycholic acid. These drugs have been tested in individual patients with fibrin storage disease with some success in reducing evidence of liver injure, i.e. reduction in blood liver enzyme levels. These and other autophagy-enhancing drugs are suggested to be further studied in fibrinogen storage disease.
Treatment is by intravenous infusion of factor IX, which has a longer half life than factor VIII and as such factor IX can be transfused less frequently. Blood transfusions may be needed, NSAIDS should be discontinued once the individual has been diagnosed with the condition. Any surgical procedure should be done "in concert" with tranexamic acid.
For people who have severe congenital protein C deficiency, protein C replacement therapies are available, which is indicated and approved for use in the United States and Europe for the prevention of purpura fulminans. Protein C replacement is often in combination with anticoagulation therapy of injectable low molecular weight heparin or oral warfarin. Before initiating warfarin therapy, a few days of therapeutic heparin may be administered to prevent warfarin skin necrosis and other progressive or recurrent thrombotic complications.
The first element of treatment is usually to discontinue the offending drug, although there have been reports describing how the eruption evolved little after it had established in spite of continuing the medication. Vitamin K1 can be used to reverse the effects of warfarin, and heparin or its low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) can be used in an attempt to prevent further clotting. None of these suggested therapies have been studied in clinical trials.
Heparin and LMWH act by a different mechanism than warfarin, so these drugs can also be used to prevent clotting during the first few days of warfarin therapy and thus prevent warfarin necrosis (this is called 'bridging').
Based on the assumption that low levels of protein C are involved in the underlying mechanism, common treatments in this setting include fresh frozen plasma or pure activated protein C.
Since the clot-promoting effects of starting administration of 4-hydroxycoumarins are transitory, patients with protein C deficiency or previous warfarin necrosis can still be restarted on these drugs if appropriate measures are taken. These include gradual increase starting from low doses and supplemental administration of protein C (pure or from fresh frozen plasma).
The necrotic skin areas are treated as in other conditions, sometimes healing spontaneously with or without scarring, sometimes going on to require surgical debridement or skin grafting.
In regards to the treatment of this genetic disorder, most individuals with severe haemophilia require regular supplementation with intravenous recombinant or plasma concentrate Factor VIII. The preventative treatment regime is highly variable and individually determined. In children, an easily accessible intravenous port ( portacath) may have to be inserted to minimise frequent traumatic intravenous cannulation. These devices have made prophylaxis in haemophilia much easier for families because the problems of "finding a vein" for infusion several times a week are eliminated. However, there are risks involved with their use, the most worrisome being that of infection, studies differ but some show an infection rate that is high These infections can usually be treated with intravenous antibiotics but sometimes the device must be removed, also, there are other studies that show a risk of clots forming at the tip of the catheter.Some individuals with severe haemophilia and most with moderate and mild haemophilia treat only as needed without a regular prophylactic schedule. Mild haemophiliacs often manage their condition with desmopressin, which releases stored factor VIII from blood vessel walls.
In December 2017, it was reported that doctors had used a new form of gene therapy to treat haemophilia A.
One drug that has been tried is Miglustat. Miglustat is a glucosylceramide synthase inhibitor, which inhibits the synthesis of glycosphingolipids in cells. It has been shown to delay the onset of disease in the NPC mouse, and published data from a multi-center clinical trial of Miglustat in the United States and England and from case reports suggests that it may ameliorate the course of human NPC.
Several other treatment strategies are under investigation in cell culture and animal models of NPC. These include, cholesterol mobilization, neurosteroid (a special type of hormone that affects brain and other nerve cells) replacement using allopregnanolone, rab overexpression to bypass the trafficking block (Pagano lab) and Curcumin as an anti-inflammatory and calcium modulatory agent. The pregnane X receptor has been identified as a potential target.
Neural stem cells have also been investigated in an animal model, and clear evidence of life extension in the mouse model has been shown.
Low cholesterol diets are often used, but there is no evidence of efficacy.
In April 2009, hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HPbCD) was approved under compassionate use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat Addison and Cassidy Hempel, identical twin girls suffering from Niemann–Pick type C disease. Medi-ports, similar to ports used to administer chemotherapy drugs, were surgically placed into the twins' chest walls and allow doctors to directly infuse HPbCD into their bloodstreams. Treatment with cyclodextrin has been shown to delay clinical disease onset, reduced intraneuronal storage and secondary markers of neurodegeneration, and significantly increased lifespan in both the Niemann–Pick type C mice and feline models. This is the second time in the United States that cyclodextrin alone has been administered in an attempt treat a fatal pediatric disease. In 1987, HPbCD was used in a medical case involving a boy suffering from severe hypervitaminosis A.
On May 17, 2010, the FDA granted Hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin orphan drug status and designated HPbCD cyclodextrin as a potential treatment for Niemann–Pick type C disease. On July 14, 2010, Dr. Caroline Hastings of UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland filed additional applications with the FDA requesting approval to deliver HPbCD directly into the central nervous systems of the twins in an attempt to help HPbCD cross the blood–brain barrier. The request was approved by the FDA on September 23, 2010, and bi-monthly intrathecal injections of HPbCD into the spine were administered starting in October 2010.
On December 25, 2010, the FDA granted approval for HPbCD to be delivered via IV to an additional patient, Peyton Hadley, aged 13, under an IND through Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford, Oregon. Soon after in March 2011, approval was sought for similar treatment of his sibling, Kayla, age 11, and infusions of HPbCD began shortly after. Both have since begun intrathecal treatments beginning in January 2012.
In April 2011, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in collaboration with the Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases Program (TRND), announced they were developing a clinical trial utilizing cyclodextrin for Niemann–Pick type C patients.
On September 20, 2011, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) granted HPbCD orphan drug status and designated the compound as a potential treatment for Niemann–Pick type C disease.
On December 31, 2011, the FDA granted approval for IV HPbCD infusions for a fifth child in the United States, Chase DiGiovanni, under a compassionate use protocol. The child was 29 months old at the time of his first intravenous infusion, which was started in January 2012.
Due to unprecedented collaboration between individual physicians and parents of children afflicted with NPC, approximately 15 patients worldwide have received HPbCD cyclodextrin therapy under compassionate use treatment protocols. Treatment involves a combination of intravenous therapy (IV), intrathecal therapy (IT) and intracerebroventricular (ICV) cyclodextrin therapy.
On January 23, 2013, a formal clinical trial to evaluate HPβCD cyclodextrin therapy as a treatment for Niemann–Pick disease, type C was announced by scientists from the NIH's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). A Phase I clinical trial is currently being conducted at the NIH Clinical Center.
There is no treatment for MKD. But, the inflammation and the other effects can be reduced to a certain extent.
- IL-1 targeting drugs can be used to reduce the effects of the disorder. Anakinra is antagonist to IL-1 receptors. Anakinra binds the IL-1 receptor, preventing the actions of both IL-1α and IL-1β, and it has been proved to reduce the clinical and biochemical inflammation in MKD. It can effectively decreases the frequency as well as the severity of inflammatory attacks when used on a daily basis. Disadvantages with the usage of this drug are occurrence of painful injection site reaction and as the drug is discontinued in the near future the febrile attacks start. (Examined in a 12-year-old patient).
- Canakinumab is a long acting monoclonal antibody which is directed against IL-1β has shown to be effective in reducing both frequency and severity in patients suffering from mild and severe MKD in case reports and observational case series. It reduces the physiological effects but the biochemical parameter still remain elevated (Galeotti et al. demonstrated that it is more effective than anakinra –considered 6 patients suffering from MKD).
- Anti-TNF therapy might be effective in MKD, but the effect is mostly partial and therapy failure and clinical deterioration have been described frequently in patients on infliximab or etanercept. A beneficial effect of human monoclonal anti-TNFα antibody adalimumab was seen in a small number of MKD patients.
- Most MKD patients are benefited by anti-IL-1 therapy. However, anti-IL-1-resistant disease may also occur. Example. tocilizumab (a humanized monoclonal antibody against the interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor). This drug is used when the patients are unresponsive towards Anakinra. (Shendi et al. treated a young woman in whom anakinra was ineffective with tocilizumab). It was found that it was effective in reducing the biochemical and clinical inflammation [30].Stoffels et al. observed reduction of frequency and severity of the inflammatory attacks, although after several months of treatment one of these two patients persistently showed mild inflammatory symptoms in the absence of biochemical inflammatory markers.
- A beneficial effect of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation can be used in severe mevalonate kinase deficiency conditions (Improvement of cerebral myelinisation on MRI after allogenic stem cell transplantation was observed in one girl). But, liver transplantation did not influence febrile attacks in this patient.
Because HFM is a rare disorder, there are no studies that define its optimal treatment. Correction of the systemic folate deficiency, with the normalization of folate blood levels, is easily achieved with high doses of oral folates or much smaller doses of parenteral folate. This will rapidly correct the anemia, immune deficiency and GI signs. The challenge is to achieve adequate treatment of the neurological component of HFM. It is essential that the folate dose is sufficiently high to achieve CSF folate levels as close as possible to the normal range for the age of the child. This requires close monitoring of the CSF folate level. The physiological folate is 5-methyltetrahydrofolate but the oral formulation available is insufficient for treatment of this disorder and a parenteral form is not available. The optimal folate at this time is 5-formyltetrahydrofolate which, after administration, is converted to 5-methyltetrahydrofolate. The racemic mixture of 5-formyltetrahydrofolate (leucovorin) is generally available; the active S-isomer, levoleucovorin, may be obtained as well. Parenteral administration is the optimal treatment if that is possible. Folic acid should not be used for the treatment of HFM. Folic acid is not a physiological folate. It binds tightly to, and may impede, FRα-mediated endocytosis which plays an important role in the transport of folates across the choroid plexus into the CSF (see above). For a further consideration of treatment see GeneReviews.
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.
Precise diagnosis by measuring proteins induced by vitamin k absence (PIVKA).
But this is usually not required.
In terms of treatment for protein S deficiency the following are consistent with the "management" (and administration of) individuals with this condition ( it should be noted that the prognosis for "inherited" homozygotes is usually in line with a higher incidence of thrombosis for the affected individual):
Protein C deficiency is a rare genetic trait that predisposes to thrombotic disease. It was first described in 1981. The disease belongs to a group of genetic disorders known as thrombophilias. Protein C deficiency is associated with an increased incidence of venous thromboembolism (relative risk 8–10), whereas no association with arterial thrombotic disease has been found.
A new investigation has identified a seemingly successful treatment for LRBA deficiency by targeting CTLA4. Abatacept, an approved drug for rheumatoid arthritis, mimics the function of CTLA4 and has found to reverse life-threatening symptoms. The study included nine patients that exhibited improved clinical status and halted inflammatory conditions with minimal infectious or autoimmune complications. The study also suggests that therapies like chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, which inhibit lysosomal degradation, may prove to be effective, as well. Larger cohorts are required to further validate these therapeutic approaches as effective long-term treatments for this disorder.
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.
Since the essential pathology is due to the inability to absorb vitamin B from the bowels, the solution is therefore injection of IV vitamin B. Timing is essential, as some of the side effects of vitamin B deficiency are reversible (such as RBC indices, peripheral RBC smear findings such as hypersegmented neutrophils, or even high levels of methylmalonyl CoA), but some side effects are irreversible as they are of a neurological source (such as tabes dorsalis, and peripheral neuropathy). High suspicion should be exercised when a neonate, or a pediatric patient presents with anemia, proteinuria, sufficient vitamin B dietary intake, and no signs of pernicious anemia.
Copper deficiency is a very rare disease and is often misdiagnosed several times by physicians before concluding the deficiency of copper through differential diagnosis (copper serum test and bone marrow biopsy are usually conclusive in diagnosing copper deficiency). On average, patients are diagnosed with copper deficiency around 1.1 years after their first symptoms are reported to a physician.
Copper deficiency can be treated with either oral copper supplementation or intravenous copper. If zinc intoxication is present, discontinuation of zinc may be sufficient to restore copper levels back to normal, but this usually is a very slow process. People who suffer from zinc intoxication will usually have to take copper supplements in addition to ceasing zinc consumption. Hematological manifestations are often quickly restored back to normal. The progression of the neurological symptoms will be stopped by appropriate treatment, but often with residual neurological disability.