Common points of therapeutic intervention in COVID-19 and in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation associated severe cytokine release syndrome.

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection can both lead to severe cytokine release syndrome (sCRS) resulting in critical illness and death. In this single institution, preliminary comparative case-series study we compared clinical and laboratory co-variates as well as response to tocilizumab (TCZ)-based therapy of 15 allogeneic-HSCT- and 17 COVID-19-associated sCRS patients. Reaction to a TCZ plus posttransplant cyclophosphamide (PTCY) consolidation therapy in the allogeneic-HSCT-associated sCRS group yielded significantly inferior long-term outcome as compared to TCZ-based therapy in the COVID-19-associated group (P = 0.

Effectiveness of intra-arterial steroid administration for the treatment of steroid-refractory acute gastrointestinal graft-versus-host disease.

Aim: To retrospectively assess the clinical effectiveness of intra-arterial steroid administration (IASA) treatment in adult patients who developed steroid-refractory gastrointestinal acute graft-versus-host disease (GI-aGvHD) (≥stage II) following haematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Materials And Methods: Clinical data of 10 consecutive adult patients (age range, 19-61 years; mean age, 42 years) of a single centre with GI-aGvHD (≥stage II) who showed no response to intravenous methylprednisolone and received IASA into the superior (SMA) and/or inferior mesenteric arteries (IMA) were analysed. The severity of aGvHD was determined as the volume of diarrhoea (stages 0-IV) and the Glucksberg grading system before and 12±3 SD, 27±4 and 54±6 days after IASA treatment.