Publications by authors named "Heylen L"

Background: Platina and taxanes are frequently used chemotherapeutic agents to treat cancer, also when diagnosed during pregnancy. This report presents an interim analysis of the largest series of children prenatally exposed to platinum and/or taxane agents and aims to determine their physical health and neurocognitive outcomes.

Methods: As part of a multicentre, prospective cohort study (ClinicalTrials.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Primary glomerular disease (PGD) is a leading factor in end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), prompting the need for kidney replacement therapy (KRT), with the study analyzing trends in KRT incidence and patient outcomes across Europe from 2000 to 2019.
  • The study included data from nearly 70,000 patients, revealing an average incidence of 16.6 per million, with significant variations across countries, and identifying immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) as the most common types.
  • Findings showed that while overall incidence declined initially, it stabilized after 2013, and patient survival rates varied among PGD subgroups,
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In contrast to whole body bioimpedance, which estimates fluid status at a single point in time, thoracic bioimpedance applied by a wearable device could enable continuous measurements. However, clinical experience with thoracic bioimpedance in patients on dialysis is limited. To test the reproducibility of whole body and thoracic bioimpedance measurements and to compare their relationship with hemodynamic changes during hemodialysis, these parameters were measured pre- and end-dialysis in 54 patients during two sessions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Acetazolamide, used in the ADVOR trial for treating acute heart failure, helps improve fluid removal when given alongside standard diuretics, but its effectiveness may be influenced by patients' bicarbonate (HCO3) levels.
  • A sub-analysis of 519 patients showed that those with higher bicarbonate levels (≥ 27 mmol/l) had a significantly better decongestive response to the medication compared to those with lower levels.
  • Overall, elevated bicarbonate levels correlated with improved diuretic response and reduced congestion scores, highlighting the importance of baseline bicarbonate in managing heart failure with acetazolamide treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a genetic disorder characterized by brain abnormalities and seizures, with severity varying among patients, potentially due to additional mutations affecting the remaining gene copy (known as the 'second hit hypothesis').
  • - Researchers have developed a new zebrafish model with mutations in genes associated with TSC, showcasing increased mTORC1 activity, seizure susceptibility, and early death, which can be treated with rapamycin.
  • - The study revealed significant similarities between the gene expression patterns in the zebrafish model and those in human SEGA lesions, suggesting that the model may be useful for understanding TSC and its neurological effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Various vaccines were developed to reduce the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Cov-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. Quickly after the start of vaccination, reports emerged that anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, including ChAdOx1-S, could be associated with an increased risk of thrombosis. We investigated the hemostatic changes after ChAdOx1-S vaccination in 631 health care workers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • SV2A is crucial for neurotransmitter release and serves as the main target for the anti-epileptic drug levetiracetam, but its exact role in epilepsy is not fully understood.
  • A new zebrafish knockout model showed that mutant larvae exhibited hyperactivity and spontaneous seizures without significant brain malformations, and treatment with levetiracetam, along with valproic acid, partially restored normal brain activity.
  • Gene expression analysis revealed thousands of differentially expressed genes linked to epileptogenesis, with pathways involved in synaptic function and signaling pathways being particularly highlighted, suggesting that other targets may also play a role in the effects of levetiracetam.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Epilepsy is a common disorder of the brain characterized by spontaneous recurrent seizures, which develop gradually during a process called epileptogenesis. The mechanistic processes underlying the changes of brain tissue and networks toward increased seizure susceptibility are not fully understood. In rodents, injection of kainic acid (KA) ultimately leads to the development of spontaneous epileptic seizures, reflecting similar neuropathological characteristics as seen in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Preliminary evidence suggests patients on hemodialysis have a blunted early serological response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Optimizing the vaccination strategy in this population requires a thorough understanding of predictors and dynamics of humoral and cellular immune responses to different SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.

Methods: This prospective multicenter study of 543 patients on hemodialysis and 75 healthy volunteers evaluated the immune responses at 4 or 5 weeks and 8 or 9 weeks after administration of the BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 vaccine, respectively.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study compares the immune responses to the BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna) COVID-19 vaccines in health care workers in Belgium.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Donor organs are exposed to sequential temperature changes during the transplantation process. The role of donor warm ischemia and cold ischemia times on post-transplant outcomes has been extensively studied. Much less attention has been paid to the transient ischemia occurring during donor organ removal and implantation.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study characterizes the prevalence of antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) among hospital staff of a Belgian tertiary care center tested over 1 week in April 2020, and risk factors for seropositivity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The most common mutation, F508del, presents with multiple cellular defects. However, the possible multiple defects caused by many rarer mutations are not well studied. We investigated four rare mutations E60K, G85E, E92K and A455E against well-characterized mutations, F508del and G551D, and their responses to corrector VX-809 and/or potentiator VX-770.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) causes severe organ dysfunction. Our aim is to evaluate the effect of increased intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) on renal function, hypothesizing that venous congestion may increase proteinuria and fluid retention without endothelial dysfunction. Three urine samples were collected from 32 non-pregnant women undergoing laparoscopic-assisted vaginal hysterectomy (LAVH) and from 10 controls placed in Trendelenburg position for 60 min.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: When the blood supply ceases in a deceased organ donor, ischaemic injury starts. Kidneys are cooled to reduce cellular metabolism and minimize ischaemic injury. This cooling is slow and kidneys are lukewarm during nephrectomy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

During ageing, kidney function decreases due to renal tubular atrophy, interstitial fibrosis, glomerulosclerosis and arteriosclerosis. Recently, changes in DNA methylation were shown to contribute to various ageing processes. However, it is unknown whether such changes also contribute to age-related kidney dysfunction.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Despite partial elucidation of the pathophysiology of antibody-mediated rejection (ABMR) after kidney transplantation, it remains largely unclear which of the involved immune cell types determine disease activity and outcome. We used microarray transcriptomic data from a case-control study (n=95) to identify genes that are differentially expressed in ABMR. Given the co-occurrence of ABMR and T-cell-mediated rejection (TCMR), we built a bioinformatics pipeline to distinguish ABMR-specific mRNA markers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ischemia during kidney transplant causes chronic allograft injury and adversely affects outcome, but the underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood. In tumors, oxygen shortage reduces the DNA demethylating activity of the ten-11 translocation (TET) enzymes, yielding hypermethylated genomes that promote tumor progression. We investigated whether ischemia similarly induces DNA hypermethylation in kidney transplants and contributes to chronic injury.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Late allograft failure is characterized by cumulative subclinical insults manifesting over many years. Although immunomodulatory therapies targeting host T cells have improved short-term survival rates, rates of chronic allograft loss remain high. We hypothesized that other immune cell types may drive subclinical injury, ultimately leading to graft failure.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF