Cold agglutinins (CA) in blood may cause false reduction in red blood cell (RBC) count and false increases of RBC indices, such as mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC). Preheating at 37 °C for 2 h is used to overcome this problem. We previously proposed the integration in a total laboratory automation (TLA) setting of a customized reflex test in the presence of MCHC >385 g/L for identifying spurious elevations due to CA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Procalcitonin (PCT) has been proposed for differentiating viral vs. bacterial infections. In COVID-19, some preliminary results have shown that PCT testing could act as a predictor of bacterial co-infection and be a useful marker for assessment of disease severity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContext.—: A relevant portion of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients develop severe disease with negative outcomes. Several biomarkers have been proposed to predict COVID-19 severity, but no definite interpretative criteria have been established to date for stratifying risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCancer Chemother Pharmacol
April 2019
Background: Platinum-based doublets are the standard chemotherapy for lung cancer. The identification of markers associated with drug toxicity may improve the success of the treatment. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) mapping into the genes involved in platinum transport or detoxification may explain the occurrence of toxicities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOxaliplatin-induced peripheral neurotoxicity (OXPN) is a dose-limiting toxicity in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes involved in drug transport may lead to higher intracellular oxaliplatin accumulation in the dorsal root ganglia and thus increased risk of OXPN. In this study, a panel of 5 SNPs, namely ABCC2 (-24C > T/rs717620 and c.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Nevirapine has been used as antiretroviral agent since early '90. Although nevirapine is not currently recommended in initial anti-HIV regimens, its use remains consistent in a certain number of HIV-1-positive subjects. Thus, our aim was to determine clinical and genetic factors involved in the development of severe nevirapine induced liver toxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Only few data are available on the influence of CYP2B6 and CYP3A4/A5 polymorphisms on nevirapine plasma concentrations in the Caucasian population. Our aim was to assess the impact of CYP2B6 and CYP3A4/A5 polymorphisms on nevirapine plasma concentrations consecutively collected.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed clinical data of all HIV-positive patients who were followed at the Infectious Diseases Unit, DIBIC Luigi Sacco, University of Milan between January 2000 and December 2015.
Eltrombopag is an oral thrombopoietin receptor agonist approved for the treatment of patients with chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), who are more than 1 year old, and show poor response to first-line therapy. ITP is a hematological disorder characterized by isolated thrombocytopenia in the absence of secondary causes or disorders. Eltrombopag is generally well tolerated in the pediatric population; therefore, therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is not usually performed in clinical practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhile the majority of patients can be treated safely with fluoropyrimidine, some experience severe fluoropyrimidine-associated toxicity. The frequency and severity of these adverse events vary from patient to patient and are partially explained by genetic polymorphism into the dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPYD) gene. Carriers of the rare allelic variants DPYD*2A, DPYD*13, and DPYD D949V are more likely to experience severe adverse reactions during fluoropyrimidine-based therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Tenofovir (TDF) is one of the most widely used antiretroviral drug. Despite the high degree of tolerability a small percentage of patients experienced alteration in tubular function during TDF use. Intracellular TDF disposition is regulated by ATP-binding cassette (ABC) drug efflux transporters and, a reduced transport activity may be implicated in accumulation of TDF into the cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: An involvement of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in increasing the risk of malformations, neonatal withdrawal syndrome, has been suggested recently. Here, we aimed to investigate the contribution of individual pharmacogenetics of SSRI on infants' outcome. We also estimated the umbilical/maternal plasma SSRI concentration ratio in the pregnant women still on SSRI therapy at the time of delivery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/hepatitis B virus (HBV) co-infection is likely to be associated with an increased risk of kidney disease, due to the additional factors that may affect renal function in the HIV population. We aimed to evaluate renal toxicity in HIV/HBV and HBV mono-infected patients on long-term therapy with tenofovir (TDF) and to explore the association of polymorphisms in ATP-binding cassette (ABCC)2, ABCC4, ABCC10 with the development of renal dysfunction. From September 2006 to November 2014, 44 HIV/HBV co-infected and 34 HBV mono-infected patients were commenced on TDF.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhat Is Known And Objective: Polymorphisms in cytochrome P450 2D6 and 2C19 can lead to interindividual differences in drug plasma concentrations, affecting clomipramine efficacy. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic analyses may improve drug therapy.
Case Summary: We report the case of a depressed woman requiring higher doses than standard of clomipramine.