Search results for "Clinical disease"

Guidelines for biomarkers in autoimmune rheumatic diseases - evidence based analysis

2018

Autoimmune rheumatic diseases are characterised by an abnormal immune system response, complement activation, cytokines dysregulation and inflammation. In last years, despite many progresses in managing these patients, it has been shown that clinical remission is reached in less than 50% of patients and a personalised and tailored therapeutic approach is still lacking resulting in a significant gap between guidelines and real-world practice. In this context, the need for biomarkers facilitating early diagnosis and profiling those individuals at the highest risk for a poor outcome has become of crucial interest. A biomarker generally refers to a measured characteristic which may be used as a…

Are Polyfunctional Cells Protective in M. tuberculosis Infection?

2012

Tuberculosis (TB) continues to claim almost 2 million lives each year, and causes active TB disease in over 9 million new cases yearly. Control of TB is further impeded by the strong increase in TB morbidity and mortality due to HIV co-infection, and the rise of multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains (WHO. Global tuberculosis control: surveillance, planning, financing: WHO 10 report 2008). Clinical disease does not develop in the vast majority (90-98%) of all Mtb infected individuals, providing compelling evidence that the human system is capable of controlling the pathogen. However, these clinically asymptomatic subjects do …

Epidemiological aspects of Crohn’s disease

2015

Crohn’s Disease (CD) is considered a result of multifactorial interplay between genetic, immune-related, environmental, and infectious triggers all contributing into evolution of clinical disease. The age of onset of Crohn’s disease has a bimodal distribution. The first peak occurs between the ages of 15 and 30 years (late adolescence and early adulthood), and the second occurs mainly in women between the ages of 60 and 70 years. In general, the frequency of CD is similar in males and females, with some studies showing a very slight female predominance. The rate of Crohn’s disease is 1.1–1.8 times higher in women than in men. This pattern is reversed with pediatric CD, which has a higher in…

Two laboratory-confirmed cases of Japanese encephalitis imported to Germany by travelers returning from Southeast Asia

2011

Japanese encephalitis virus is the leading cause of encephalitis in Asia and parts of the Pacific. Despite the high number of symptomatic infections in endemic countries, clinical disease in travelers is rare. However, an increasing number of imported infections from popular holiday destinations in Southeast Asia have been recorded in the past few years, including serious disease courses in short-term travelers. Here we report two severe, non-fatal cases in tourists, who returned from a long-time stay in Thailand and a short-term trip to Bali, Indonesia, respectively. Recommendations for vaccination and pre-travel advice are discussed.

The potential of serum neurofilament as biomarker for multiple sclerosis

2021

Abstract Multiple sclerosis is a highly heterogeneous disease, and the detection of neuroaxonal damage as well as its quantification is a critical step for patients. Blood-based serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) is currently under close investigation as an easily accessible biomarker of prognosis and treatment response in patients with multiple sclerosis. There is abundant evidence that sNfL levels reflect ongoing inflammatory-driven neuroaxonal damage (e.g. relapses or MRI disease activity) and that sNfL levels predict disease activity over the next few years. In contrast, the association of sNfL with long-term clinical outcomes or its ability to reflect slow, diffuse neurodegenerativ…

Implications of extreme serum neurofilament light chain levels for the management of patients with relapsing multiple sclerosis

2021

Background: Serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL) is a promising biomarker to complement the decision-making process in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. However, although sNfL levels are able to detect disease activity and to predict future disability, the growing evidence has not yet been translated into practicable recommendations for an implementation into clinical routine. Methods: The observation of a patient with extensive inflammatory activity in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) along with an extremely high sNfL level in the absence of any clinical symptoms prompted us to investigate common characteristics of our MS patients with the highest sNfL levels in a retrospective cohort st…

Update on biomarkers for the detection of lung cancer

2017

Patients at risk for lung cancer may have subclinical disease for years before presentation. The diagnosis of this disease is primarily based on symptoms, and detection often occurs after curative intervention is no longer possible. At present, no lung cancer early-detection biomarker is clinically available. This study reviews the most recent advances in early detection and molecular diagnostic biomarkers for the detection of lung cancer. This review includes an overview of the various biological specimens and matrices in which these biomarkers could be analyzed, as well as the diverse strategies and approaches for identifying new biomarkers that are currently being explored. Several novel…

Thyroid Stimulating Hormone Receptor Antibodies in Thyroid Eye Disease-Methodology and Clinical Applications.

2018

Background Thyroid stimulating hormone receptor antibodies (TSHR-Ab) cause autoimmune hyperthyroidism and are prevalent in patients with related thyroid eye disease (TED). Purpose To provide a historical perspective on TSHR-Ab and to present evidence-based recommendations for clinical contemporary use. Methods The authors review the recent literature pertaining to TSHR-Ab in patients with TED and describe the various immunoassays currently used for detecting TSHR-Ab and their clinical applications. Results We provide a historical summary and description of the various methods used to detect TSHR-Ab, foremost, the functional TSHR-Ab. Increasing experimental and clinical data demonstrate the …

POS1021 THE PsABio STUDY IN ITALY: A REAL-WORLD COMPARISON OF THE PERSISTENCE, EFFECTIVENESS AND SAFETY OF USTEKINUMAB AND TUMOUR NECROSIS FACTOR INH…

2021

Background:There are still unmet needs in the treatment of psoriatic arthritis (PsA), including in terms of treatment persistence, which is a function of effectiveness, safety and patient satisfaction. Ustekinumab (UST) was the first new biologic drug to be developed for the treatment of PsA after tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi).Objectives:To compare treatment persistence, effectiveness and safety of UST and TNFi in Italian patients within the PsABio cohort.Methods:PsABio (NCT02627768) is an observational study of 1st/2nd/3rd-line UST or TNFi treatment in PsA in 8 European countries. The current analysis set includes 222 eligible patients treated in 15 Italian centres, followed to …

2014

Background and purpose: A substantial reduction of uncertainties in clinical brachytherapy should result in improved outcome in terms of increased local control and reduced side effects. Types of uncertainties have to be identified, grouped, and quantified. Methods: A detailed literature review was performed to identify uncertainty components and their relative importance to the combined overall uncertainty. Results: Very few components (e.g., source strength and afterloader timer) are independent of clinical disease site and location of administered dose. While the influence of medium on dose calculation can be substantial for low energy sources or non-deeply seated implants, the influence…