Publications by authors named "Claudia Maximo"

Article Synopsis
  • Human genetic variation has helped identify key regulators of hemoglobin switching, notably BCL11A, leading to therapeutic advancements, but understanding of the broader regulatory mechanisms remains limited.
  • A large genome-wide association study involving 28,279 individuals from 5 continents identified 178 significant genetic variants affecting fetal hemoglobin regulation.
  • The research pinpointed BACH2 as a new regulator and clarified how certain genetic variations, including rare deletions, interact to influence fetal hemoglobin levels, paving the way for improved treatments for conditions like sickle cell disease and β-thalassemia.
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Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has a significant impact on sickle cell disease (SCD) morbidity and mortality. Early identification of individuals at highest risk of developing CKD may allow therapeutic intervention to prevent worse outcomes. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and risk factors for reduced estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) among adults with SCD in Brazil.

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Objective: To define the prevalence of leg ulcers and identify the clinical and laboratory factors associated with leg ulcers in adult participants.

Methods: The authors conducted a cross-sectional study of 1,109 patients who were 18 years or older with SS or Sβ0-thalassemia genotypes from a Brazilian cohort. Investigators assessed the prevalence of factors associated with leg ulcers from 2013 to 2017.

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Manifestations of sickle cell disease (SCD) begin early in childhood and cause morbidity and decreased life expectancy. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is curative but associated with risk of mortality attributable to the transplant. This risk should be counterbalanced with SCD morbidity and mortality.

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BACKGROUNDCurative gene therapies for sickle cell disease (SCD) are currently undergoing clinical evaluation. The occurrence of myeloid malignancies in these trials has prompted safety concerns. Individuals with SCD are predisposed to myeloid malignancies, but the underlying causes remain undefined.

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A match of HLA loci between patients and donors is critical for successful hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. However, the extreme polymorphism of HLA loci - an outcome of millions of years of natural selection - reduces the chances that two individuals will carry identical combinations of multilocus HLA genotypes. Further, HLA variability is not homogeneously distributed throughout the world: African populations on average have greater variability than non-Africans, reducing the chances that two unrelated African individuals are HLA identical.

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Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a multisystem disorder characterized by a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations and severity. Studies investigating potential effects of co-morbid human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and SCD have produced conflicting results, and additional investigations are needed to elucidate whether the interaction between the two disease states might impact both HIV and SCD clinical outcomes. The association of HIV infection with clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with SCD was assessed.

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Background: Red blood cell (RBC) transfusions are used in sickle cell disease (SCD) to treat acute complications or as chronic transfusion therapy (CTT) to prevent severe manifestations. The objectives of this study were to describe blood utilization and adverse events (AEs) associated with RBCs in the Brazilian SCD population and compare characteristics of patients treated or not with CTT.

Study Design And Methods: A SCD cohort was established at six Brazilian centers.

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We described the clinical, laboratory and molecular characteristics of individuals with Hb S (: c.20A>T)/β-thalassemia (Hb S/β-thal) participating in the Recipient Epidemiology and Donor Evaluation Study (REDS-III) Brazil Sickle Cell Disease cohort. gene sequencing was performed to genotype each β-thal mutation.

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Background: The diagnosis of sickle cell disease (SCD) is made by hemoglobin assays such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), isoelectric focusing and cellulose acetate or citrate agar electrophoresis. These assays are easy to perform and used in large-scale newborn screening in many countries. These tests however may not easily differentiate Sβ0 thalassemia from SS or identify other hemoglobin variants, and in this case, hemoglobin (HBB) gene sequencing may be necessary.

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Background: Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) often require red blood cell (RBC) transfusion for clinical complications, so may be exposed to transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs). The prevalence of markers for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and B (HBV), human T-cell lymphotropic virus (HTLV-1/2), Chagas disease, and syphilis in an SCD cohort in Brazil were studied.

Study Design And Methods: Clinical history, interview data, blood samples, and medical chart review data were collected during cohort enrollment from November 2013 to May 2015.

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Article Synopsis
  • Priapism, a painful and persistent erection, is a common complication in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD), and this study aims to explore the clinical and genetic factors linked to it within a large Brazilian cohort.
  • The research found that older male patients and those with severe SCD genotypes had a higher incidence of priapism, alongside associations with conditions like pulmonary hypertension and avascular necrosis.
  • The study highlights the need for further validation of genetic markers related to priapism and emphasizes the importance of developing standard treatment strategies, particularly for at-risk populations.
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Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects more than 13 million people and can have a significant impact on the quality of life (QoL) of those persons. We performed a cross-sectional study to evaluate the QoL in SCD children 8-12 years old enrolled from November 2014 to March 2016 in a large multicenter cohort study in Brazil. The PedsQL™ SCD Module was used to evaluate QoL in 412 children from six Brazilian health centers.

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Sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with significant morbidity, and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) remains the primary curative treatment. Recently, the Brazilian Ministry of Health released a regulation that required the publically funded healthcare system to pay for HSCT for SCD patients with defined indications. We used an existing 2794-member SCD cohort established during 2013 to 2015 to characterize candidates for HSCT and estimate the number of possible donors.

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Approximately 3500 children with sickle cell disease (SCD) are born in Brazil each year, but the burden of SCD morbidity is not fully characterised. A large, multi-centre cohort was established to characterise clinical outcomes in the Brazilian SCD population and create the infrastructure to perform genotype-phenotype association studies. Eligible patients were randomly selected from participating sites and recruited at routine visits.

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Aims: Although several therapeutic options are available for chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (cITP), little is known about the treatment of cITP in Brazil.

Materials And Methods: A multi-center, retrospective chart review, observational study was designed to describe the treatment patterns, clinical burden, resources use, and associated costs for adult patients diagnosed with cITP and treated in public and private institutions in Brazil. Patient charts were screened in reverse chronological order based on their last visit post January 1, 2012.

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In this study, we describe four new patients with sickle cell disease who had limb amputations. Two of the patients had sickle cell anemia [Hb S (HBB: c.20A > T) (β(S)/β(S))] with refractory leg ulcers that required amputations.

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