Introduction
As a result of the new treatment paradigm that the haemophilia community will face with the availability of novel (non‐factor) therapies, an updated consensus on ITI recommendations and ...inhibitor management strategies is needed.
Aim
The Future of Immunotolerance Treatment (FIT) group was established to contemplate, determine and recommend the best management options for patients with haemophilia A and inhibitors.
Discussion and Conclusions
Despite the considerable success of emicizumab in the management of inhibitor patients, the FIT group still sees the importance of eradicating inhibitors. However, the availability of emicizumab and other non‐factor therapies in the future might impact greatly on how ITI is undertaken. Theoretically, concomitant use of emicizumab and FVIII might allow emicizumab to effectively prevent bleeding with lower dose ITI regimens. This might allow for the greater adoption of low‐dose/low‐frequency FVIII ITI regimens, which may result in a reduced need for central venous access devices while still maintaining a reasonable likelihood of ITI success. The FIT group proposes a new management algorithm for current ITI (without emicizumab) and a hypothetical new approach with the availability of emicizumab. As there are no published data regarding the concomitant use of emicizumab and FVIII for ITI, the FIT Expert group encourages the undertaking of properly conducted prospective studies to explore these approaches further.
Summary
Consensus‐based guidelines supported by the literature are presented on the role of prophylactic administration of factor VIII concentrate in children and adults with severe haemophilia A. ...The timing of initiation of prophylaxis, the choice of prophylactic regimen, monitoring, management of breakthrough bleeding and education of the patient and family are discussed.
Factor V deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive coagulation disorder. Awareness of presenting features and management is important to avoid bleeding complications associated with mortality and ...neurodisability.
A 6-day-old Pakistani boy was admitted with bleeding from the left nipple. His parents were first cousins. A coagulation screen showed a prothrombin time of 41 s (control 14 s), a partial thromboplastin time of 132 s (control 33 s) and a normal thrombin time of 15 s (control 14 s). Factor V activity was <0.01 IU/ml. Oral tranexamic acid was started. At 5 weeks of age the child presented with irritability, lethargy and reduced feeding and a drop of hemoglobin to 5.6 g/dl. A cranial computed tomography scan showed a right intra-cerebral bleed extending from the frontal lobe to the parieto-occipital region with shift of the midline to the left. A regime of 20 ml/kg of fresh frozen plasma four times a week was instituted and has prevented further bleeds up to the present age of 21 months. Neurodevelopment remained normal.
This case illustrates that in an unusually bleeding newborn of consanguineous parents rare severe homozygous bleeding disorders need to be considered. Nipple bleeding may be the first presentation of a congenital bleeding disorder. In cases of factor V deficiency where factor concentrates are not available long term use of fresh frozen plasma can prevent potentially life threatening bleeding.
Summary
Evidence‐based guidelines are presented for the management of haemophilia in the fetus and neonate. This includes information regarding the management of pregnancy and delivery as well as ...aspects of management during the early neonatal period. Specific issues regarding the mode of delivery and the risk of intra‐cranial and extra‐cranial haemorrhage are discussed.
The objective of this study was to examine the association of the intensity of treatment, ranging from high-dose intensive factor VIII (FVIII) treatment to prophylactic treatment, with the inhibitor ...incidence among previously untreated patients with severe hemophilia A. This cohort study aimed to include consecutive patients with a FVIII activity < 0.01 IU/mL, born between 2000 and 2010, and observed during their first 75 FVIII exposure days. Intensive FVIII treatment of hemorrhages or surgery at the start of treatment was associated with an increased inhibitor risk (adjusted hazard ratio aHR, 2.0; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.3-3.0). High-dose FVIII treatment was associated with a higher inhibitor risk than low-dose FVIII treatment (aHR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.0-4.8). Prophylaxis was only associated with a decreased overall inhibitor incidence after 20 exposure days of FVIII. The association with prophylaxis was more pronounced in patients with low-risk F8 genotypes than in patients with high-risk F8 genotypes (aHR, 0.61, 95% CI, 0.19-2.0 and aHR, 0.85, 95% CI, 0.51-1.4, respectively). In conclusion, our findings suggest that in previously untreated patients with severe hemophilia A, high-dosed intensive FVIII treatment increases inhibitor risk and prophylactic FVIII treatment decreases inhibitor risk, especially in patients with low-risk F8 mutations.
•High-dose intensive factor VIII treatment increases the risk for inhibitor development in patients with severe hemophilia A.•In patients with severe hemophilia A, factor VIII prophylaxis decreases inhibitor risk, especially in patients with low-risk F8 mutations.
Heterozygous mutations in neutrophil elastase have been detected in many sporadic cases of congenital neutropenia. However, a convincing pathogenetic mechanism has not been established, and it is ...unclear whether the effects of the mutant enzyme occur within the cell of production or are paracrine in nature. The healthy father of a patient was demonstrated to be mosaic for his daughter's Cys42Arg elastase mutation. Using semiquantitative polymerase chain reaction, approximately half of his T cells were shown to carry the mutation in contrast to less than 10% of neutrophils. Individual hematopoietic colonies grown from peripheral blood were heterozygous for the mutation or were homozygous wild type. These results demonstrate that precursors containing the mutation are selectively lost during myelopoiesis or fail to develop into neutrophils. This is the first in vivo confirmation of the pathogenic nature of elastase mutations in humans. The normal neutrophil count in the father suggests that the mutant elastase does not have paracrine effects.
The effect of recombinant factor VIII (rFVIII) brand on inhibitor development was investigated in all 407 severe hemophilia A previously untreated patients born in the United Kingdom (UK) between 1 ...January 2000 and 31 December 2011. Eighty-eight (22%) had been in the RODIN study. Information was extracted from the National Haemophilia Database. Because exposure days (EDs) were not known for some patients, time from first treatment was used as a surrogate for rFVIII exposure. An inhibitor developed in 118 (29%) patients, 60 high and 58 low titer, after a median (interquartile range) of 7.8 (3.3-13.5) months from first exposure and 16 (9-30) EDs. Of 128 patients treated with Kogenate Bayer/Helixate NexGen, 45 (35.2%, 95% confidence interval CI 27.4-43.8) developed an inhibitor compared with 42/172 (24.4%, 95% CI 18.6% to 31.4%) with Advate (P = .04). The adjusted hazard ratio (HR) (95% CI) for Kogenate Bayer/Helixate NexGen compared with Advate was 2.14 (1.12-4.10) (P = .02) for high titer and 1.75 (1.11-2.76) (P = .02) for all inhibitors. When excluding UK-RODIN patients, the adjusted HR (95% CI) for high-titer inhibitors was 2.00 (0.93-4.34) (P = .08). ReFacto AF was associated with a higher incidence of all, but not high-titer, inhibitors than Advate. These results will help inform debate around the relative immunogenicity and use of rFVIII brands.
•Kogenate Bayer/Helixate NexGen was associated with a higher inhibitor incidence than Advate in 407 consecutive UK severe hemophilia A previously untreated patients.•Other risk factors for inhibitor development were factor VIII genotype, ethnicity, and intensive treatment episodes.
Background: The SIPPET study investigated inhibitor development in 251 previously untreated patients (PUPs) treated with either plasma-derived FVIII products containing von Willebrand factor ...(pdFVIII/VWF; n = 125), or recombinant FVIII (rFVIII; n = 126) from hamster cell lines. Amongst PUPs with non-null F8 mutations, none developed inhibitors when treated with pdFVIII/VWF while the cumulative inhibitor incidence was 43% in those treated with hamster-cell-derived rFVIII. In patients with null F8 mutations, the cumulative inhibitor incidences were 31% and 47% in patients treated with pdFVIII/VWF and rFVIII, respectively. In patients with null mutations the cumulative incidences of high-titre inhibitors were 22% and 30% with pdFVIII/VWF and rFVIII, respectively.
Aim: To investigate the relationship between inhibitor development and F8 mutation type in PUPs with severe hemophilia A treated with either a rFVIII from a human cell line (Nuwiq®; simoctocog alfa) or either of two pdFVIII/VWF products, one with a VWF/FVIII ratio of 0.4 (octanate®) the other with a VWF/FVIII ratio of 1.0 (wilate®).
Materials and Methods: Data from completed multicenter, prospective trials with octanate® and wilate® and interim data from the NuProtect study with Nuwiq® were analyzed. Data on F8 mutation type were available for 50/51, 27/28 and 58/66 patients in each of the studies. All patients in the three studies had no previous treatment with FVIII concentrates or other blood products containing FVIII.
Results: In the three studies, 18% (9/50), 7.4% (2/27) and 19%.0% (11/58) of patients had non-null mutations. None of the patients with non-null mutations developed inhibitors with octanate®, wilate® or Nuwiq®. In patients with null mutations, 9.8% (4/41), 12.0% (3/25), and 17.0% (8/47) developed high-titre inhibitors.
Conclusions: PUPs with non-null F8 mutations did not develop inhibitors when treated with octanate®, wilate® or Nuwiq®. Whilst the different studies are not directly comparable, the findings with these products, two pdFVIII/VWF and a rFVIII from a human cell line, show similar behavior to the SIPPET trial where no patients with non-null mutations treated with pdFVIII/VWF products developed inhibitors.
Liesner:Bayer: Consultancy, Research Funding; Baxalta: Consultancy, Research Funding; Novo Nordisk: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Roche: Research Funding; Sobi: Speakers Bureau; Octapharma: Consultancy, Other: Clinical study investigator for NuProtect Study (Octapharma sponsored), Research Funding, Speakers Bureau. Versteden:Octapharma AG: Employment. Lowndes:Octapharma AG: Employment. Belyanskaya:Octapharma AG: Employment. Oldenburg:Grifols: Honoraria, Research Funding; Novo Nordisk: Honoraria, Research Funding; Biotest: Honoraria, Research Funding; Biogen: Honoraria, Research Funding; Pfizer: Honoraria, Research Funding; Roche: Honoraria, Research Funding; Octapharma: Honoraria, Research Funding; Shire: Honoraria, Research Funding; CSL Behring: Honoraria, Research Funding; Bayer: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Chugai: Honoraria, Research Funding; Swedish Orphan Biovitrum: Honoraria, Research Funding. Pavlova:Novo Nordisk: Honoraria; Octapharma: Honoraria.
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