Vitamin B6 deficiency and anemia in pregnancy

Iron deficiency is the most common cause of anemia in pregnancy. Pregnant women with anemia are, in general, exclusively treated with iron supplementation. We observed that several pregnant women with anemia who were nonresponsive to iron supplementation also had vitamin B6 deficiency, and that anemia in these cases improved with the administration of vitamin B6. Our prospective study in healthy pregnant women showed that blood levels of iron, ferritin and vitamin B6, in particular, fell to the lower limit of the nonpregnant reference range by the third trimester. We conclude that it is important to take into account the deficiency of vitamin B6 besides iron in the evaluation of anemia during pregnancy.

[Mitral valve replacement with St. Jude Medical mechanical heart valve in severely calcified mitral annulus; a simple and novel technique]

A 63-year-old woman who had been on hemodialysis for 20 years was referred to our institution to undergo mitral valve surgery for mitral valve stenosis. Intraoperative investigations confirmed severe calcification of the mitral leaflets and mitral annulus. We excised the only anterior leaflet, but preserved the posterior leaflet to prevent a fatal complication such as posterior left ventricular rupture or injury of the coronary artery. We passed 2-0 polyester mattress sutures through the anterior mitral annulus from the left ventricle to the left atrium, and then folded the posterior leaflet. Preserved posterior leaflet was fixed to posterior mitral annulus and prosthetic valve. The mitral valve was replaced using a St. Jude Medical mechanical heart valve with a specific structure, whose hinge shifts to the left atrial side and most of the leaflet to move its housing. This particular structure enables to perform this procedure without the need for excision of a severely calcified posterior mitral leaflet and annulus.

Prognostic factors for mature natural killer (NK) cell neoplasms: aggressive NK cell leukemia and extranodal NK cell lymphoma, nasal type

BACKGROUND

Patients with natural killer (NK) cell neoplasms, aggressive NK cell leukemia (ANKL) and extranodal NK cell lymphoma, nasal type (ENKL), have poor outcome. Both diseases show a spectrum and the boundary of them remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to draw a prognostic model of total NK cell neoplasms.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We retrospectively analyzed 172 patients (22 with ANKL and 150 with ENKL). The ENKLs consisted of 123 nasal and 27 extranasal (16 cutaneous, 9 hepatosplenic, 1 intestinal and 1 nodal) lymphomas.

RESULTS

Complete remission rate for ENKL was 73% in stage I, but 15% in stage IV, which was consistent with that for ANKL (18%). The prognosis of ENKL was better than that of ANKL (median survival 10 versus 1.9 months, P < 0.0001) but was comparable when restricted to stage IV cases (4.0 months, P = 0.16). Multivariate analysis showed that four factors (non-nasal type, stage, performance status and numbers of extranodal involvement) were significant prognostic factors. Using these four variables, an NK prognostic index was successfully constructed. Four-year overall survival of patients with zero, one, two and three or four adverse factors were 55%, 33%, 15% and 6%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

The current prognostic model successfully stratified patients with NK cell neoplasms with different outcomes.

Retrospective analysis of CD5-positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (CD5+ DLBCL) treated with chemotherapy with or without rituximab

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Background: CD5+ DLBCL comprises 5–10% of DLBCL, and shows a high incidence of central nervous system (CNS) relapse. It has been included in the 4th WHO classification as an immunohistochemical subgroup. To clarify the prognosis and incidence of CNS relapse of CD5+ DLBCL in the rituximab-era, we conducted a multicenter retrospective study. Methods: We analyzed 313 patients (pts) with CD5+ DLBCL who received chemotherapy with (n=164) or without rituximab (n=149). The current series includes 107 out of 120 pts described in our previous study (Haematologica, 2008). Intravascular large B-cell lymphoma, primary CNS DLBCL, and secondary CD5+ DLBCL were excluded from the study population. Results: 313 pts showed the following clinical features: median age, 67 (range: 15–93); M:F=163:150; elevated serum LDH level, 71%; stage III/IV, 64%; IPI HI/H, 53%. No significant difference in clinical background such as the IPI and its five components, B symptom, male sex, and bone marrow involvement was found between pts who were treated with and without rituximab. Pts treated without rituximab received more dose-intensive chemotherapies (CHOP14, third-generation regimen, and high dose cytarabine-based regimen) than those treated with rituximab (24% vs. 7%, P<0.0001). The CR rate was higher in pts received rituximab than those without (81% vs. 65%; P=0.0014). The median follow-up was 28 months in pts who received rituximab (range: 7–77) and 68 months in those who did not (range: 6–187). Overall survival (OS) was significantly superior for pts with rituximab than for those without (2-yr OS: 68% vs. 54%, P=0.003). Multivariate analysis revealed that the use of rituximab was favorably associated with OS (HR=1.81, 95% CI: 1.26–2.58, P=0.001), but dose-intensive chemotherapies did not affect OS. However, the incidence of CNS relapse was not different between the two groups (2-yr CNS relapse rate: 11.9% vs. 11.4%, P=0.91). 16 of the 20 pts (80%) with CNS relapse in the rituximab group had brain parenchymal disease. Conclusions: Our data show that rituximab improves OS of pts with CD5+ DLBCL, but does not prevent CNS relapse. Future prospective studies to decrease CNS disease for CD5+ DLBCL are warranted.

No significant financial relationships to disclose.

Clinicopathological manifestations and treatment of intestinal transplant-associated microangiopathy

Intestinal transplant-associated microangiopathy (i-TAM) is an important complication after allogeneic hematopoietic SCT. From 1997 to 2006, 87 of 886 patients with diarrhea after transplantation received colonoscopic biopsy. i-TAM, GVHD and CMV colitis were diagnosed histopathologically. The median duration from transplantation to the onset of diarrhea was 32 days (range: 9-130 days) and that from the onset of diarrhea to biopsy was 12 days (range: 0-74 days). The median maximal amount of diarrhea was 2 l/day (range: 130-5600 ml/day). Histopathological diagnosis included i-TAM (n=80), GVHD (n=26), CMV colitis (n=17) and nonspecific findings (n=2) with overlapping. Among 80 patients with i-TAM, abdominal pain was a major symptom, and only 11 patients fulfilled the proposed criteria for systemic TAM. Non-relapse mortality (NRM) among patients without resolution of diarrhea was 72% and i-TAM comprised 57% of NRM. NRM was 25% among patients without intensified immunosuppression, but was 52, 79 and 100% among those with intensified immunosuppression before diarrhea, after diarrhea, and before and after diarrhea, respectively. In conclusion, i-TAM is a major complication presenting massive refractory diarrhea and abdominal pain, which causes NRM. Avoiding intensified immunosuppression that damages vascular endothelium until the resolution of i-TAM may improve transplant outcome.

Skew in T cell receptor usage with polyclonal expansion in lesions of oral lichen planus without hepatitis C virus infection

Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a refractory disorder of the oral mucosa. Its predominant symptoms are pain and haphalgesia that impair the quality of life of patients. OLP develops via a T cell-mediated immune process. Here, we examined the characteristics of the infiltrating T cells in terms of the T cell receptor (TCR) repertoires, T cell clonality, T cell phenotypes and cytokine production profiles. TCR repertoire analyses and CDR3 size spectratyping were performed using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and tissue specimens of OLP biopsies from 12 patients. The cytokine expression profiles and T cell phenotypes were measured by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. We observed that there were skewed TCR repertoires in the tissue samples (TCRVA8-1, VA22-1, VB2-1, VB3-1 and VB5-1) and PBMCs (TCRVA8-1, VB2-1, VB3-1 and VB5-1) from OLP patients. Furthermore, the CDR3 distributions in the skewed TCR subfamilies exhibited polyclonal patterns. We observed increases in CD4(+) T lymphocytes, interleukin (IL)-5, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and human leucocyte antigen D-related in the OLP tissue specimens. Taken together, the present results suggest that T cells bearing these TCRs are involved in the pathogenesis of OLP, and that IL-5 and TNF-alpha may participate in its inflammatory process.