Lupus
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The objective of the study was to evaluate the clinical features, response to treatment, and long-term outcome of subglottic stenosis (SGS) in a series of patients diagnosed as having Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) at a single institution. Subglottic stenosis developed in 6 out of 51 (11.7%) patients, in four of them in the absence of other features of active disease, and was the symptom that leads to WG diagnosis in three cases. In two cases, SGS began while the patients were receiving systemic immunosuppressive therapy for disease activity involving other sites. ⋯ Two patients with isolated SGS were also successfully managed with ILCD alone and did not require the institution of systemic immunosuppressive therapy. One patient underwent open surgical repair when the disease was under control. Our data suggest that Subglottic stenosis often occurs or progresses independently of other features of active WG, and that ILCD may be a safe alternative to conventional immunosuppressive therapy in patients who develop SGS in the absence of other features of active disease, allowing reducing the treatment-related toxicity.
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A retrospective analysis of the long-term outcome of patients with membranous lupus nephropathy (MLN) was conducted. One hundred Chinese patients, 90 females and 10 males with a mean age of 32+/-9 years, with systemic lupus erythematosus and biopsy-proven MLN (ISN/RPS2003 classification criteria) were enrolled in this study. The patient and renal survivals were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and the risk factors associated with end-stage renal failure (ESRF) were assessed by the Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. ⋯ Twenty-one patients underwent a repeat biopsy after 33months' (median time) follow-up, eight (38.1%) of these (class V superimposed class IV in 5, class V superimposed class III in 2 and class VI in 1) had transformed and three (37.5%) of them progressed to ESRF. Complications included infection (13%), thrombosis (3%), avascular necrosis (3%), diabetes mellitus (4%) and skin cancer (1%). The rate of patient and renal survival was high in this group of patients with MLN.
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The objective of this study was to characterize risk factors for thrombotic events in lupus patients. A total of 272 lupus patients were followed up for five years during which the presence of aPL antibodies [anticardiolipin (aCL), anti-beta2-glycoprotein I (abeta2GPI) and lupus anticoagulant (LAC)] were determined, and all thrombotic incidents and antithrombotic therapy-related data were collected. At baseline, three groups were constituted, an aPL- group with 107 aPL negative patients, an aPL+ group with 81 aPL positive patients without clinical thrombosis and a secondary antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) group with 84 aPL+ patients who met the Sapporo criteria. ⋯ In the aPL+ group, thrombotic events reoccurred in 1.9% of those receiving antithrombotic prophylaxis and 6.9% of those without primary prophylaxis. Despite anticoagulant therapy, thrombotic events reoccurred in 8.3% of the APS group. These findings indicate that LAC, constant and cumulative presence of aPL and previous thrombosis are positive predictors for the development of thrombotic complication in lupus patients.
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Review Case Reports
Development of hairy cell leukemia in a patient with antiphospholipid syndrome.
We present a young woman who was diagnosed as primary antiphospholipid syndrome (deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in 1999; moderate thrombocytopenia with high-positive anticardiolipin ELISA tests in 2002, and cerebral thrombosis in 2003), and then developed hairy cell leukemia (massive splenomegaly, neutropenia, hairy cells in blood smear and bone marrow trephine biopsy in 2004). A partial remission was achieved with interferon-alpha 2a therapy. After the initiation of 2-chloro-deoxyadenosine therapy, splenomegaly disappeared, the percentage of hairy cells on the bone marrow reduced below 1%, platelet count returned to normal levels. ⋯ In our literature search, we found only six cases that had both antiphospholipid antibodies and hairy cell leukemia. Our case is the first case of antiphospholipid syndrome before the development of hairy cell leukemia. Both hairy cell leukemia and antiphospholipid syndrome responded to lymphocytotoxic treatment with 2-chloro-deoxyadenosine.