Objectives
Nationwide prospective cohort study exploring (i) the factors associated with treatment initiation (vs. watchful waiting) in children with primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) followed in ...routine clinical practice and (ii) the predictors of chronicity at 12 months.
Procedure
Between 2008 and 2013, 23 centers throughout France consecutively included 257 children aged 6 months–18 years and diagnosed with primary ITP over a 5‐year period. Data on ITP clinical features along with medical management were collected at baseline and 12 months. Multivariate logistic regressions were used to determine (i) and (ii) as defined above, providing odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (95% CI).
Results
One hundred thirty‐seven (53%) children were males, median age was 4.6 years, median platelet count was 7 × 109/l, and 214 (81%) patients initiated medication. Factors independently associated with treatment initiation included platelet counts <10 × 109/l (P < 0.0001) and mucocutaneous bleeding symptoms at baseline (P < 0.001). At 12 months, data were available for 211 (82%) children, of whom 160 (74%) had recovered. Predictors of chronicity included female gender (OR = 2.2; 95% CI = 1.0–4.8), age ≥10 years (OR = 2.6; 95% CI = 1.1–6.0), and platelet counts ≥10 × 109/l (OR = 3.2; 95% CI = 1.5–6.9).
Conclusions
In routine clinical practice, the decision to apply a watchful waiting strategy seems to be driven by platelet counts even in the absence of bleeding symptoms, resulting in treatment being initiated in more than 80% of the children surveyed. Overall, younger children with ITP showed good prognosis, with lower platelet counts and, to a lesser extent, male gender predicting more favorable outcomes.
Background Most children with primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs) now reach adulthood. However, few studies have evaluated their health status and health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Objective To ...investigate long-term morbidity, the French Reference Center for PIDs initiated a prospective multicenter cohort: the French Childhood Immune Deficiency Long-term Cohort. The data collected were used to assess the physical health condition of patients who reached adulthood and the effect on their quality of life. Methods Patients were asked to complete health status questionnaires. A severity score (grade 1 mild to grade 4 life-threatening) was assigned to each health condition. The HRQoL of patients was compared with age- and sex-matched French normal values by using the 36-item Short-Form Survey (SF-36) HRQoL questionnaire. Results Among 329 participants, the mean age at evaluation was 27.6 years, with a 21-year mean follow-up after diagnosis; 43% reported at least 1 grade 4 health condition, and 86% reported at least 1 grade 3 (severe) or 4 health condition. Twenty-five (7.6%) patients had been treated for cancer. Compared with the French normal values, adults with PIDs scored significantly lower for all HRQoL domains. HRQoL was strongly associated with the burden of health conditions. The association with grade 4 or grade 3-4 health conditions was highly significant for all physical and mental domains. Conclusion Adults with PIDs diagnosed during childhood experienced a heavy burden of health conditions, which affected their HRQoL. Our results emphasize the need to closely monitor this vulnerable population.
Introduction
This study presents the results of a real-life, multicenter, prospective, post-approval safety evaluation of Clairyg® 50 mg/mL, a 5% intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) liquid, in 59 ...children (aged < 12 years) with primary immunodeficiency diseases (PID) (
n
= 32) or immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) (
n
= 27) in France.
Methods
The primary objective of the study was to assess the safety and tolerability of Clairyg®, recording all serious and non-serious adverse events (AEs), whether related (rAEs) or not related to the product. Secondary objectives aimed at evaluating the administration of Clairyg® under routine conditions and the available efficacy data to better document the benefit/risk ratio in this pediatric population. An exploratory objective was added to evaluate the potential factors associated with the occurrence of rAEs. Patients received Clairyg® according to the approved dosage under normal conditions of prescriptions over a median follow-up period of 11.8 months.
Results
A total of 549 infusions (PID:
n
= 464 and ITP:
n
= 85), were administered, of which 58.8% were preceded by premedication. The most frequent rAEs were headache, vomiting, and pyrexia in both indications. Most of them were considered non-serious and mild or moderate in intensity. A severe single rAE was observed (aseptic meningitis) in a 4-year-old girl presenting with chronic ITP. The exploratory multivariate analysis of potential co-factors showed that the occurrence of rAEs is significantly linked to high IVIg doses and possibly to female gender. The annualized rate of serious bacterial infections was 0.11 for patients with PID. For patients with ITP, 74.1% experienced at least one bleeding episode during the follow-up, mostly a cutaneous one, and none had gastrointestinal, genitourinary, or central nervous system bleeding.
Conclusion
Clairyg® was well tolerated and allowed for control of serious bacterial infection in PID and serious bleeding in ITP, which are the main complications in these respective pediatric disorders. No new safety signal was detected in children less than 12 years-old in real-life conditions of use.
We report here two new familial cases of associated del15q11 and del7p22, with the latter underlining the clinical variability of this deletion. Two siblings patients presented a similar familial ...imbalanced translocation, originating from a balanced maternal translocation, with deletions of 7p22 and of 15q11 arrGRCh37 7p22.3-p22.2(42976-3736851)x1, 15q11.1-q11.2(20172544-24979427)x1.
We used aCGH array, FISH, and karyotype for studying the phenotype of the two patients.
The 7p22 deletion (3.5 Mb) contained 58 genes, including several OMIM genes. Patients 1 and 2 exhibited acquisition delays, morphological particularities, and hypogammaglobulinemia, which was more severe in patient 1. Patient 1 presented also with cerebral vasculitis.
We discuss here how the PDGFa, CARD11, LFNG, GPER1, and MAFK genes, included in the deletion 7p22, could be involved in the clinical and biological features of the two patients.
Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura is a rare thrombotic microangiopathy, related to a severe ADAMTS13 deficiency (a disintegrin and metalloprotease with thromboSpondin type 1 repeats, member 13; ...activity <10% of normal). Childhood-onset thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura is very rare and initially often misdiagnosed, especially when ADAMTS13 deficiency is acquired (ie, not linked to inherited mutations of the ADAMTS13 gene). We aimed to investigate initial presentation, management, and outcome of acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura in children.
Between Jan 1, 2000, and Dec 31, 2015, we studied a cohort of patients with child-onset and adolescent-onset acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura included in the French national registry for thrombotic microangiopathies at presentation and during follow up. The inclusion criteria were: first episode before age 18 years; ADAMTS13 activity less than 10% of normal at presentation; positive anti-ADAMTS13 autoantibodies during an episode, or a recovery of ADAMTS13 activity in remission, or both. ADAMTS13 activity and anti-ADAMTS13 autoantibodies were investigated by a central laboratory, and medical records were extensively reviewed to collect clinical and biological features with a standardised form. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00426686.
We enrolled 973 patients with childhood-onset thrombotic microangiopathy, of whom 74 had a severe ADAMTS13 deficiency (activity <10%) at presentation. 24 patients had an inherited thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura also known as Upshaw-Schulman syndrome and five did not have follow-up data available, thus 45 children had acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and were included in our database at presentation. 25 (56%) patients had idiopathic disease and 20 (44%) had miscellaneous associated clinical conditions. At diagnosis, median age was 13 years (IQR 7-16, range 4 months-17 years), with a sex ratio of 2·5 girls to 1 boy. Anti-ADAMTS13 autoantibodies were positive in 37 (82%) of 45 patients (24 96% of 25 idiopathic cases and 13 65% of 20 non-idiopathic cases). 39 (87%) of 45 patients were given plasma therapy and 21 (47%) received additional rituximab. Four (9%) children died after the first thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura episode. Long-term follow up of the 41 survivors showed that ten (24%) patients relapsed and systemic lupus erythematosus occurred in two (5%) patients. Preemptive rituximab was used in seven (17%) of 41 patients with acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.
Our study shows that child-onset and adolescent-onset acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura have specific clinical, biological and therapeutic features. Long-term follow-up is crucial to prevent relapses of the disease, to identify the occurrence of autoimmune disorders, and to evaluate consequences on social life. Child-onset and adolescent-onset acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura is a crucial diagnosis in the field of paediatric haematologic cytopenias because it is a life-threatening disease requiring a specific management.
Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, France.
Immunodeficiency Centromeric Instability and Facial anomalies (ICF) is a rare autosomal recessive disease characterized by reduction in serum immunoglobulins with severe recurrent infections, facial ...dysmorphism, and more variable symptoms including mental retardation. ICF is directly related to a genomic methylation defect that mainly affects juxtacentromeric heterochromatin regions of certain chromosomes, leading to chromosomal rearrangements that constitute a hallmark of this syndrome upon cytogenetic testing. Mutations in the de novo DNA methyltransferase DNMT3B, the protein ZBTB24 of unknown function, or loci that remain to be identified, lie at its origin. Despite unifying features, common or distinguishing molecular signatures are still missing for this disease.
We used the molecular signature that we identified in a mouse model for ICF1 to establish transcriptional biomarkers to facilitate diagnosis and understanding of etiology of the disease. We assayed the expression and methylation status of a set of genes whose expression is normally restricted to germ cells, directly in whole blood samples and epithelial cells of ICF patients.
We report that DNA hypomethylation and expression of MAEL and SYCE1 represent robust biomarkers, easily testable directly from uncultured cells to diagnose the most prevalent sub-type of the syndrome. In addition, we identified the first unifying molecular signatures for ICF patients. Of importance, we validated the use of our biomarkers to diagnose a baby born to a family with a sick child. Finally, our analysis revealed unsuspected complex molecular signatures in two ICF patients suggestive of a novel genetic etiology for the disease.
Early diagnosis of ICF syndrome is crucial since early immunoglobulin supplementation can improve the course of disease. However, ICF is probably underdiagnosed, especially in patients that present with incomplete phenotype or born to families with no affected relatives. The specific and robust biomarkers identified in this study could be introduced into routine clinical immunology or neurology departments to facilitate testing of patients with suspected ICF syndrome. In addition, as exemplified by two patients with a combination of molecular defects never described before, our data support the search for new types of mutations at the origin of ICF syndrome.
Background Primary immunodeficiencies (PIDs) are inherited diseases associated with a considerable increase in susceptibility to infections. It is known that PIDs can also predispose to cancer and ...immune diseases, including allergy, autoimmunity, and inflammation. Objective We aimed at determining the incidence of autoimmunity and inflammation in patients with PIDs. Methods We have retrospectively screened 2183 consecutive cases of PID in the Centre de Référence Déficits Immunitaires Héréditaires registry (CEREDIH; the French national PID registry) for the occurrence of autoimmunity and inflammation. Results One or more autoimmune and inflammatory complications were noted in 26.2% of patients, with a risk of onset throughout the patient's lifetime. The risk of autoimmune cytopenia was at least 120 times higher than in the general population, the risk of inflammatory bowel disease in children was 80 times higher, and the risk of other autoimmune manifestations was approximately 10 times higher. Remarkably, all types of PIDs were associated with a risk of autoimmune and inflammatory complications, although the greatest risk was associated with T-cell PIDs and common variable immunodeficiency. The occurrence of autoimmune disease is a negative prognostic factor for survival. Conclusions Our results provide the basis for a detailed prospective evaluation of autoimmunity and inflammation in the context of PIDs, with a view to accurately assessing these risks and describing the possible effect of medical intervention.
Evans syndrome (ES) is a rare severe autoimmune disorder characterized by the combination of autoimmune hemolytic anemia and immune thrombocytopenia. In most cases, the underlying cause is unknown. ...We sought to identify genetic defects in pediatric ES (pES), based on a hypothesis of strong genetic determinism. In a national, prospective cohort of 203 patients with early-onset ES (median range age at last follow-up: 16.3 years (1.2-41.0 years) initiated in 2004, 80 nonselected consecutive individuals underwent genetic testing. The clinical data were analyzed as a function of the genetic findings. Fifty-two patients (65%) received a genetic diagnosis (the M+ group): 49 carried germline mutations and 3 carried somatic variants. Thirty-two (40%) had pathogenic mutations in 1 of 9 genes known to be involved in primary immunodeficiencies (TNFRSF6, CTLA4, STAT3, PIK3CD, CBL, ADAR1, LRBA, RAG1, and KRAS), whereas 20 patients (25%) carried probable pathogenic variants in 16 genes that had not previously been reported in the context of autoimmune disease. Lastly, no genetic abnormalities were found in the remaining 28 patients (35%, the M− group). The M+ group displayed more severe disease than the M− group, with a greater frequency of additional immunopathologic manifestations and a greater median number of lines of treatment. Six patients (all from the M+ group) died during the study. In conclusion, pES was potentially genetically determined in at least 65% of cases. Systematic, wide-ranging genetic screening should be offered in pES; the genetic findings have prognostic significance and may guide the choice of a targeted treatment.
•At least 65% of cases of pES may be genetically determined.•Genetic findings have prognostic significance and may guide the physician's choice of a targeted treatment.
Abstract Background The diagnosis of neuroblastoma is rare after the age of 15 years, and anatomical locations are essentially the adrenal glands and paraspinal sites. Neuroblastomas in adolescents ...are most often metastatic and carry a very poor prognosis. Case Report We report the case of a 17-year-old young woman in whom the diagnosis of primary ovarian neuroblastoma associated with a mature teratoma was established. A workup to assess disease extension was negative. Due to the localized characteristic of this tumor and the absence of N- myc oncogene amplification, and in spite of the unfavorable characteristic of the patient's age, treatment consisted of surgical removal of the tumor followed by clinical, laboratory and radiographic monitoring. No relapse has occurred during the 3-year follow up. Conclusion The issues raised by this rare case are discussed concomitantly with a review of the literature.
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