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Identification of Parameters Representative of Immune Dysfunction in Patients with Severe and Fatal COVID-19 Infection: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Qin R, He L, Yang Z, Jia N, Chen R, Xie J, Fu W, Chen H, Lin X, Huang R, et al
Clinical reviews in allergy & immunology. 2022;:1-33
Abstract
Abnormal immunological indicators associated with disease severity and mortality in patients with COVID-19 have been reported in several observational studies. However, there are marked heterogeneities in patient characteristics and research methodologies in these studies. We aimed to provide an updated synthesis of the association between immune-related indicators and COVID-19 prognosis. We conducted an electronic search of PubMed, Scopus, Ovid, Willey, Web of Science, Cochrane library, and CNKI for studies reporting immunological and/or immune-related parameters, including hematological, inflammatory, coagulation, and biochemical variables, tested on hospital admission of COVID-19 patients with different severities and outcomes. A total of 145 studies were included in the current meta-analysis, with 26 immunological, 11 hematological, 5 inflammatory, 4 coagulation, and 10 biochemical variables reported. Of them, levels of cytokines, including IL-1β, IL-1Ra, IL-2R, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-18, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IgA, IgG, and CD4(+) T/CD8(+) T cell ratio, WBC, neutrophil, platelet, ESR, CRP, ferritin, SAA, D-dimer, FIB, and LDH were significantly increased in severely ill patients or non-survivors. Moreover, non-severely ill patients or survivors presented significantly higher counts of lymphocytes, monocytes, lymphocyte/monocyte ratio, eosinophils, CD3(+) T,CD4(+)T and CD8(+)T cells, B cells, and NK cells. The currently updated meta-analysis primarily identified a hypercytokinemia profile with the severity and mortality of COVID-19 containing IL-1β, IL-1Ra, IL-2R, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-18, TNF-α, and IFN-γ. Impaired innate and adaptive immune responses, reflected by decreased eosinophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, B cells, NK cells, T cells, and their subtype CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells, and augmented inflammation, coagulation dysfunction, and nonpulmonary organ injury, were marked features of patients with poor prognosis. Therefore, parameters of immune response dysfunction combined with inflammatory, coagulated, or nonpulmonary organ injury indicators may be more sensitive to predict severe patients and those non-survivors.
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Effectiveness and tolerability of different therapies in preventive treatment of MOG-IgG-associated disorder: A network meta-analysis
Wang X, Kong L, Zhao Z, Shi Z, Chen H, Lang Y, Lin X, Du Q, Zhou H
Frontiers in immunology. 2022;13:953993
Abstract
BACKGROUND Immunotherapy has been shown to reduce relapses in patients with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disorder (MOG-AD); however, the superiority of specific treatments remains unclear. AIM: To identify the efficacy and tolerability of different treatments for MOG-AD. METHODS Systematic search in Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases from inception to March 1, 2021, were performed. Published articles including patients with MOG-AD and reporting the efficacy or tolerability of two or more types of treatment in preventing relapses were included. Reported outcomes including incidence of relapse, annualized relapse rate (ARR), and side effects were extracted. Network meta-analysis with a random-effect model within a Bayesian framework was conducted. Between group comparisons were estimated using Odds ratio (OR) or mean difference (MD) with 95% credible intervals (CrI). RESULTS Twelve studies that compared the efficacy of 10 different treatments in preventing MOG-AD relapse, including 735 patients, were analyzed. In terms of incidence of relapse, intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG), oral corticosteroids (OC), mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), azathioprine (AZA), and rituximab (RTX) were all significantly more effective than no treatment (ORs ranged from 0.075 to 0.34). On the contrary, disease-modifying therapy (DMT) (OR=1.3, 95% CrI: 0.31 to 5.0) and tacrolimus (TAC) (OR=5.9, 95% CrI: 0.19 to 310) would increase the incidence of relapse. Compared with DMT, IVIG significantly reduced the ARR (MD=-0.85, 95% CrI: -1.7 to -0.098). AZA, MMF, OC and RTX showed a trend to decrease ARR, but those results did not reach significant differences. The combined results for relapse rate and adverse events, as well as ARR and adverse events showed that IVIG and OC were the most effective and tolerable therapies. CONCLUSIONS Whilst DMT should be avoided, IVIG and OC may be suited as first-line therapies for patients with MOG-AD. RTX, MMF, and AZA present suitable alternatives.
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Autologous Cultured Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in a Fibrin Spray to Treat Venous Ulcers: A Randomized Controlled Double-Blind Pilot Study
Falanga V, Grada A, Otero-Vinas M, Lin X, Yufit T, Fiore D, Carson P
Surgical technology international. 2022;40
Abstract
We treated a small cohort of venous ulcers that were very unresponsive to standard and advanced therapies with autologous cultured bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). This pilot clinical trial was randomized, controlled, and double-blinded. Subjects were treated with either normal saline (Group A), fibrin spray alone (Group B), or MSCs in fibrin (1 million cells/cm2 of wound bed surface) (Group C). The control and test materials were applied to the wound using a double-barreled syringe with thrombin and fibrinogen (with or without MSCs) in each barrel, or saline alone in both barrels. The MSCs were separated, cultured in vitro, and expanded in a dedicated Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility from 30-50 ml of bone marrow aspirate obtained from the iliac crest in Group C subjects. To ensure that the study remained controlled and blinded, subjects who were randomized to one of the two control arms (saline or fibrin) underwent sham bone marrow aspiration performed by a hematologist who anesthetized the iliac crest area down to and pushing against the periosteum, but without penetrating the bone marrow. Therefore, both the clinician who evaluated wound progress and the study subjects had no knowledge of whether bone aspiration was actually performed and what treatment had been applied to the wound. The study was performed after full FDA investigational new drug (IND) approval. The primary endpoint was the rate of healing (wound closure as linear healing from the wound margins in cm/week), as measured by the Gilman equation. One-way ANOVA was used to calculate the statistical significance of differences between the mean healing rates of each of the 3 treatment groups every 4 weeks and over the 24 weeks of treatment. Overall, treatment with MSCs accelerated the healing rate by about 10-fold compared to those in the saline and fibrin control groups. Although the total number of patients in this pilot study was small (n=11), the statistical significance was surprisingly promising: p<0.01 and f-ratio of 15.9358. No serious adverse events were noted. This small but carefully performed prospective, controlled, randomized, and double-blinded pilot study in a rare population of totally unresponsive patients adds to previous reports showing the promise of MSCs in the treatment of chronic wounds and provides proof of principle for how to approach this type of very demanding clinical and translational research.
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Efficacy and incidence of treatment related adverse events of thrombopoietin receptor agonists in adults with immune thrombocytopenia: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled study
Liu Y, Zhang HX, Su J, Geng QC, Lin X, Feng CX
Acta haematologica. 2022
Abstract
INTRODUCTION To conduct a network meta-analysis to assess the efficacy and incidence of treatment related adverse events (TRAEs) of eltrombopag, romiplostim, avatrombopag, recombinant human thrombopoietin (rhTPO) and hetrombopag for adult immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). METHODS Randomized controlled trails (RCTs) of the five therapies from inception to June 1, 2022 were included. The efficacy outcome was the rate of platelet response, defined as the achievement of platelet counts above 50 x 109/L. Pairwise odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were caculated. The surface under the cumulative ranking (SUCRA) was used to rank the included therapies for each outcome. RESULTS In total, 1,360 participants were analyzed in 14 eligible RCTs. All of the therapies showed a significantly better platelet response than the placebo, and avatrombopag (OR, 7.42; 95% CI, 1.74-31.69) and rhTPO (OR, 3.86; 95%CI, 1.62-9.18) were better than eltrombopag. Regarding TRAEs, no significant differences were found between patients receiving eltrombopag, romiplostim, and avatrombopag. Avatrombopag carried the highest platelet response rate with SUCRA value of 87.5, and carried the least TRAEs risk with SUCRA value of 37.0. CONCLUSIONS These findings indicated that avatrombopag appeared to be the optimal choice as the second-line therapy of adult ITP.
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Application of postoperative autotransfusion in total joint arthroplasty reduces allogeneic blood requirements: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Ji W, Lin X, Zhang R, Tang P, Mo J, Teng X, Fan Q, Wang B, Fan S, Zhang J, et al
Bmc Musculoskeletal Disorders. 2017;18((1)):378.
Abstract
BACKGROUND Total joint arthroplasty is associated with significant blood loss and often requires blood transfusion. However, allogeneic blood transfusion (ABT) may lead to severe problems, such as immunoreaction and infection. Postoperative autotransfusion, an alternative to ABT, is controversial. We conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the ability of postoperative autotransfusion to reduce the need for ABT following total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA). METHODS Systematic literature searches for randomized controlled trials were performed using PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library until February 2016. Relative risks (RRs) and weighted mean differences with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using fixed-effect or random-effect models; we also evaluated publication bias and heterogeneity. RESULTS Seventeen trials with a total of 2314 patients were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled RRs of ABT rate between autotransfusion and the regular drainage/no drainage groups for TKA and THA were 0.446 (95% CI = 0.287, 0.693; p < 0.001) and 0.757 (95% CI = 0.599, 0.958; p = 0.020), respectively. In the subgroup analysis performed in TKA patients according to control interventions, the pooled RRs were 0.377 (95% CI = 0.224, 0.634; p < 0.001) (compared with regular drainage) and 0.804 (95% CI = 0.453, 1.426, p = 0.456) (compared with no drainage). In the subgroup analysis performed for THA, the pooled RRs were 0.536 (95% CI = 0.379, 0.757, p < 0.001) (compared with regular drainage) and 1.020 (95% CI = 0.740, 1.405, p = 0.904) (compared with no drainage). CONCLUSIONS Compared to regular drainage, autotransfusion reduces the need for ABT following TKA and THA. This reduction is not present when comparing autotransfusion to no drainage. However, the reliability of the meta-analytic results concerning TKA was limited by significant heterogeneity in methods among the included studies.
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Meta-analysis of predictors of early severe bleeding in patients who underwent transcatheter aortic valve implantation
Sun Y, Liu X, Chen Z, Fan J, Jiang J, He Y, Zhu Q, Hu P, Wang L, Xu Q, et al
The American Journal of Cardiology. 2017;120((4):):655-661
Abstract
Severe bleeding (SB) in patients who underwent transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) could be fatal. Although multiple independent predictors of bleeding post-TAVI have been identified, the definitions of bleeding and predictors vary across studies. This study aimed to provide summary effect estimates for predictors of SB within 30 days post-TAVI. A systematic review of studies that reported the incidence of bleeding post-TAVI with raw data for predictors of interest was performed. Data on characteristics of study, patient, and procedure were extracted. Crude risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using random-effect model. Fifteen predictors on 65,209 patients from 47 studies were analyzed. The median rate of SB was 11% across studies. Seven factors (3 patient related and 4 procedure related) were recognized as predictors of early SB post-TAVI. Age ≥90 years (RR 1.17; p = 0.008), female (RR 1.13; p = 0.01), and sheath diameter >19 Fr (RR 1.19; p = 0.04) were weak predictors. Chronic kidney disease (RR 1.94; p <0.001) and transapical (TA) (RR 1.82; p <0.001) were moderate predictors that were almost associated with twofold risk. Vascular complication (RR 2.97; p <0.001) and circulatory support (RR 3.39; p <0.001) were strong predictors that were nearly associated with threefold risk. In conclusion, age, gender, chronic kidney disease, TA, sheath diameter, vascular complication, and circulatory support were all predictors of early SB post-TAVI in this meta-analysis, which provided possible guidance for prevention and management of SB related to TAVI.
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Exchange transfusion therapy and its effects on real-time microcirculation in pediatric sickle cell anemia patients: an intravital microscopy study
Cheung AT, Miller JW, Miguelino MG, To WJ, Li J, Lin X, Chen PC, Samarron SL, Wun T, Zwerdling T, et al
Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology. 2012;34((3):):169-74.
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Abstract
Periodic blood exchange transfusion is a treatment modality commonly used to manage pediatric sickle cell anemia at the University of California Davis Medical Center. The goal of exchange transfusion therapy is to ameliorate vasoocclusion and improve tissue perfusion by removing sickled red blood cells and introducing normal red blood cells. Using computer-assisted intravital microscopy, pretransfusion and posttransfusion microvascular characteristics were analyzed. In this study, the bulbar conjunctiva exhibited a "blanched" avascular appearance in all 6 pediatric sickle cell anemia patients before transfusion, indicative of tissue hypoperfusion and ischemia. Immediately after transfusion, substantial improvement in vascularization and tissue perfusion resulted, reflected by the enhanced appearance of capillaries and arterioles. In addition, a decrease in red cell velocity was observed. These observations provide evidence that exchange transfusion therapy is beneficial in ameliorating vasoocclusion and improving tissue perfusion. However, with the paradoxical posttransfusion decrease in red cell velocity presumably due to induced hyperviscosity from the large transfusion volume, blood flow is still impaired. This decreased velocity may thwart efforts to improve oxygen delivery through transfusion and may, to some extent, promote vasoocclusion instead. This paradoxical result warrants further investigation on the effects of transfusion volume and viscosity in the exchange transfusion process.
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The effect of tourniquet use on hidden blood loss in total knee arthroplasty
Li B, Wen Y, Wu H, Qian Q, Lin X, Zhao H
International Orthopaedics. 2009;33((5):):1263-8.
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Abstract
The objective of this study was to examine the characteristics of hidden blood loss and assess the effects of using a tourniquet on postoperative hidden loss in patients undergoing primary total knee arthroplasty. Eighty patients were randomised into two groups: one group underwent operation with a tourniquet and one without. Operating time, perioperative blood loss, hidden blood loss, free haemoglobin, swelling, ecchymosis, straight leg raising action and knee flexion were measured. There were significant differences in the hidden blood loss, free haemoglobin, postoperative swelling, extent of ecchymosis, straight leg raising and postoperative knee flexion in the early period after operation between the two groups. Our results indicate that knee arthroplasty operations with a tourniquet might promote postoperative hidden blood loss and hinder patients' in early postoperative rehabilitation exercises.
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MRI results from the European Study on Intravenous Immunoglobulin in Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (ESIMS)
Fazekas F, Sørensen PS, Filippi M, Ropele S, Lin X, Koelmel HW, Fernandez O, Pozzilli C, O'Connor P, Enriquez MM, et al
Multiple Sclerosis (Houndmills, Basingstoke, England). 2005;11((4):):433-40.
Abstract
BACKGROUND Monthly application of high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) to patients with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) showed no clinical benefit in the European Study on Immunoglobulin in MS (ESIMS). Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results may provide insights into the morphologic consequences of such treatment. METHODS A total of 318 patients (mean age 44 +/- 7 years) were enrolled in 31 European and Canadian centres and treated monthly with 1 g/kg body weight of IVIG or equivalent amounts of albumin 0. 1% for 27 months. MRI was performed at baseline and after 12 and 24 months and comprised of conventional dual-echo T2-weighted and T1-weighted scans before and after application of 0. 1 mmol/kg Gd-DTPA. RESULTS Similar to clinical variables, MRI measures at baseline were well comparable between treatment groups except for a somewhat lower mean number of contrast-enhancing lesions and number of active scans in IVIG-treated patients. Over the trial period there was almost no change of the T2-lesion load and the 'black hole' volume in both treatment groups and the cumulative number of contrast-enhancing lesions were similar. There was only a trend for fewer new or enlarged T2-lesions in IVIG patients, which disappeared after correction for the imbalance in the number of contrast-enhancing lesions at baseline. Brain volume in terms of a partial cerebral fraction decreased significantly less with IVIG than placebo treatment (final visit: -0. 62 -/+ 0. 88% versus -0. 88 +/- 0. 91%; P=0. 009). This difference remained statistically significant with correction for active lesions at baseline (P=0. 02) and was seen primarily in male patients and those with an Expanded Disability Status Scale score > or = 6 and no relapses in the two years before the study. CONCLUSION The absence of significant differences in conventional MRI measures between both treatment groups parallels the negative clinical results of ESIMS. The causes for and possible long-term clinical effects of a lower rate of brain volume loss in IVIG patients should be explored further.