Rationale: The introduction of immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICPI) in recent years has changed the natural course of many neoplasms. However, patients receiving these medications may present immune-mediated adverse events; management includes temporary or permanent cessation of treatment and corticosteroids, occasionally combined with other immunomodulators. Such immunosuppression, however, also has numerous adverse events and even if it is effective in controlling toxicity, it delays immunotherapy reinitiation, as current evidence requires dose tapering to ≤10 mg prednisolone equivalent before rechallenge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Mycobacterial infections can cause significant morbidity when cellular immunity is compromised. Patients with AIDS can be affected directly from infection or through mycobacterial IRIS, especially if they are previously untreated for HIV. Herein a case of tuberculous lymphadenitis is reported, which primarily responded to antimicrobials but complicated by IRIS and cat-scratch disease at a later course.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMediterranean Kaposi's sarcoma (MKS), HIV-related KS (HIV-KS) and immunosuppression-associated KS (IS-KS), caused by human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8), share similar histological features. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in epidermal nerve fibers (ENFs) between the three KS types and controls. Skin biopsies from 23 HIV-KS, 16 MKS, 28 IS-KS patients and 18 controls, age-gender matched, were immunostained with PGP 9.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To identify changes in peripheral immune responses in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) treated with irinotecan/5-fluorouracil/leucovorin (IFL) alone or in combination with cetuximab (C-IFL).
Methods: Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) collected from healthy donors (n = 20) and patients with mCRC receiving treatment with either IFL (n = 30) or C-IFL (n = 30) were tested for cytokine production upon polyclonal stimulation with anti-CD3 monoclonal antibody, T cell proliferation in the autologous mixed lymphocyte reaction (auto-MLR) and T regulatory cell (Treg) frequency. The respective results were evaluated over two treatment cycles and further assessed in relation to response to treatment.
Objectives: to investigate the predictive value of arterial stiffness (AS) estimation for long-term recurrences in patients with type 2 diabetes (DM2) following acute coronary event.
Patients And Methods: prospective observational study involving 119 DM2 patients without history of coronary heart disease admitted with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Medical history, anthropometrics, smoking, HbA1c, lipid profile, troponine-I levels, and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were recorded.