Carrfallon1567

Adalimumab (ADL), infliximab (IFX) and their biosimilars are widely used biological drugs. Some patients, however, generate neutralizing antibodies that hamper the effectiveness of these drugs. Evidence shows therapeutic drug monitoring of serum levels ADL/IFX and anti-drug antibodies (ADA) is useful to improve treatment effectiveness. We evaluated a new rapid quantitative method, Quantum Blue (QB), for determining serum anti-ADL and anti-IFX antibodies (Research Use Only labelling) by comparing it with two established ELISA kits, Promonitor (PM) and Lisa-Tracker (LT).

Eighty samples (40 for each drug type) were analysed. Percentage of agreement and kappa statistic were used to compare positive/negative ADA results. Clinical implications for drug treatment in the patients with discordant results were evaluated. Selleckchem Myrcludex B The Chi-square test was used to analyze differences for ADA detection in patients with disease flare and without concomitant immunosuppressant treatment.

Agreement exceeded 80 % among anti-ADL methods. Although LT ELISA showed a lower capacity in detecting anti-ADL antibodies, discrepancies were found for levels close to the cut-off concentration, thus having minimal impact on clinical decisions. Conversely, QB anti-IFX displayed low agreement with PM and LT ELISA kits (67.5 % and 50 %, respectively), and was unable to detect high levels of antibodies, therefore having major clinical implications. Agreement between PM and LT ELISA anti-IFX kits was 82.5 % with all discordant results being undetected for PM and slightly positive for LT.

QB anti-ADL shows similar performance to ELISA kits while QB anti-IFX needs further improvements to achieve reliable antibody detection.

QB anti-ADL shows similar performance to ELISA kits while QB anti-IFX needs further improvements to achieve reliable antibody detection.

Evidence on the effectiveness and safety of fingolimod in real-world clinical practice in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region is limited. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of fingolimod in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) in real-world setting in the MENA region.

RRMS patients who had been treated with fingolimod for at least 12 months were retrospectively identified from the databases of 34 centers across the MENA region. Study outcomes included the annualized relapse rate (ARR), relapse-free rate (RFR), time to first and second relapses, mean change in Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS), proportion of patients with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) activity and no evidence of disease activity (NEDA)-3, retention of patients on treatment, as well as all safety measures.

A total of 806 patients were included 66.34 % female; mean age 32.97 ± 9.62 years; mean disease duration 4.92 ± 4.66 years; mean fingolimod use 37.2 ± 16.7 months. Most e East and North African (MENA) region.

This study confirms the effectiveness and safety profile of fingolimod in real-world setting in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region.

Pregnancy among patients with congenital myasthenic syndrome (CMS) is a rare occurrence. Since most of the patients with CMS reach adulthood, questions regarding clinical outcome with pregnancy arise.

We describe a 38-year-old Portuguese female who presented in the second trimester of pregnancy with proximal fluctuating limb-girdle weakness, hyperlordosis, waddling gait, dysphagia, dysphonia and ptosis, with no ophthalmoparesis. Initial diagnosis of seronegative myasthenia, supported by neurophysiology findings, led to unsuccessful treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin, pyridostigmine, prednisolone and plasmapheresis, and the patient slowly progressed to a severe tetraparesis with facial and bulbar involvement. Genetic testing for CMS identified a novel compound heterozygous mutation (c.1124_1127dupTGCC and c.935_936del) in the DOK7 gene. Subsequent treatment with salbutamol resulted in substantial clinical benefit.

This case underlines the importance of considering the diagnosis of CMS in patients with fluctuating weakness during pregnancy. Patients of child-bearing potential diagnosed with CMS, particularly due to DOK7 mutations, should be counseled in advance and closely followed during pregnancy.

This case underlines the importance of considering the diagnosis of CMS in patients with fluctuating weakness during pregnancy. Patients of child-bearing potential diagnosed with CMS, particularly due to DOK7 mutations, should be counseled in advance and closely followed during pregnancy.

In Western European countries, acute ischemic stroke (AIS) remains the third leading cause of death. Among the risk factors for cerebrovascular disease, some have more influence than others in certain stroke subtypes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of risk factors among Stroke Subtypes on the clinical outcome of Portuguese patients under previous aspirin therapy.

We studied a cohort of 371 patients diagnosed with AIS and a clinical follow-up protocol was set up.The patients were admitted in a Department of Internal Medicine of a major hospital. Standardized data assessment and stroke subtype classification (Oxfordshire Community Stroke Project) were used.

Arterial hypertension (80.4 %), overweight (72.6 %) and dyslipidemia (62.0 %) were the most prevalent risk factors with no statistical differences among the group's subtypes. Current smoking was more prevalent in POCI(62.9 %) with differences among subtypes (p = 0.002). Atrial fibrillation was more commonly reported in TACI (39.3 %) aon its clinical outcome.

We investigated the correlation between a history of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and alopecia areata risk.

The study cohort comprised 30,001 patients with newly diagnosed HPV infection between 2000 and 2012; and with use of computer-generated randomly numbers, patients not had HPV infection were randomly selected as the comparison cohort. HPV infection cohort were matched to comparison individuals at a 11 ratio by age, gender and index year. All study individuals were followed up until they developed alopecia areata, withdraw from the insurance program, lost to follow-up, or until the end of 2013. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used to analyze the risk of alopecia areata with hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) between the HPV and control cohort.

The adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of alopecia areata for HPV patients relative to controls was 2.55 (95% C.I.=1.88-3.47) after adjusting sex, age and comorbidities. Subgroup analysis indicated that patients with HPV infections had a significantly greater risk of alopecia areata for both genders, all age subgroups, and those with mental disorder diseases.