Advanced Practice Nursing and CAR-T Cell Therapy: Opportunities, Challenges and Future Directions.

Objectives: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy is a new treatment for patients with myeloma and other B cell malignancies where advanced practice nurses (APN) can make a great contribution. The aim of this review is to identify key aspects of current literature relevant to APNs working with this population.

Methods: Discussion of selected peer-reviewed literature and best practice guidelines found through electronic database searches (CINAHL, MEDLINE).

Diverging role of epicardial adipose tissue across the entire heart failure spectrum.

Aims: Epicardial adipose tissue (EAT) is a metabolically highly active tissue modulating numerous pathophysiological processes. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between EAT thickness and endothelial function in patients with heart failure (HF) across the entire ejection fraction spectrum.

Methods And Results: A total of 258 patients with HF with an ejection fraction across the entire spectrum [HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF), n = 168, age 60.

Patient-reported experiences of cancer care related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland.

Purpose: This study aims to describe the experience of Swiss oncological patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A national multi-center study including five hospitals covering the three main language regions of Switzerland was conducted between March and July 2021. Patients with melanoma, breast, lung, or colon cancer receiving active systemic anti-cancer treatment at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic were included.

Symptom experience of multiple myeloma (syMMex) patients treated with autologous stem cell transplantation following high-dose melphalan: a descriptive longitudinal study.

Purpose: High-dose melphalan and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) are associated with high symptom burden. This study aimed to explore multiple myeloma (MM) patients' experience of symptom frequency, intensity, and distress during therapy.

Methods: This descriptive longitudinal study enrolled 29 MM patients who completed the 43-item PROVIVO questionnaire, measuring symptom experience across the dimensions of frequency, intensity, and distress at four assessment points: hospital admission (T0), leucocyte nadir (T1), discharge (T2), and 30 days post discharge (T3).

Vascular Effects of Eplerenone in Coronary Artery Disease With Preserved Ejection Fraction: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

Background: Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs) reduce morbidity and mortality in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Their role in patients without heart failure, particularly in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and preserved EF, is still a matter of debate.

Hypothesis: The MRA eplerenone on top of standard medical therapy improves endothelial dysfunction and other markers of vascular health in CAD patients with preserved EF.

Medical therapy of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: current evidence and new developments.

Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is a common cardiovascular condition with a significant individual and societal burden. Although it was previously known as a palliative condition, medical drug therapies that were developed in the last four decades significantly reduced morbidity and mortality of the disease. The cornerstone of HFrEF therapy remains the blockade of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone and the β-adrenergic systems.

The good and the bad of neuroinflammation in multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common inflammatory, demyelinating, neurodegenerative disorder of the central nervous system (CNS). It is widely considered a T-cell mediated autoimmune disease that develops in genetically susceptible individuals, possibly under the influence of certain environmental trigger factors. The invasion of autoreactive CD4+ T-cells into the CNS is thought to be a central step that initiates the disease.

Gender differences in circulating levels of neutrophil extracellular traps in serum of multiple sclerosis patients.

Neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) trap and kill pathogens very efficiently but also activate dendritic cells and prime T cells. Previously, we demonstrated that neutrophils are primed and circulating NETs are elevated in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS), a T cell-mediated autoimmune disease. Here, we demonstrate gender specific differences in circulating NETs but not in neutrophil priming in RRMS patients.

Neutrophils in multiple sclerosis are characterized by a primed phenotype.

Neutrophils are armed with proteases with indiscriminate histotoxic potential, and to minimize tissue injury, their activation involves priming with inflammatory mediators before cells are fully activated in a second step. Here, we show that neutrophils in multiple sclerosis patients are more numerous and exhibit a primed state based on reduced apoptosis, higher expression of TLR-2, fMLP receptor, IL-8 receptor and CD43, enhanced degranulation and oxidative burst as well as higher levels of neutrophil extracellular traps in serum. The chronic inflammatory environment in multiple sclerosis probably underlies this inappropriate neutrophil priming, which may result in enhanced neutrophil activation during infection.