Changes in anti-viral effectiveness of interferon after dose reduction in chronic hepatitis C patients: a case control study

BACKGROUND: High dose interferon induction treatment of hepatitis C viral infection blocks viral production over 95%. Since dose reduction is often performed due to clinical considerations, the effect of dose reduction on hepatitis C virus kinetics was studied. METHODS: A new model that allowed longitudinal changes in the parameters of viral dynamics was used in a group of genotype-1 patients (N = 15) with dose reduction from 10 to 3 million units of interferon daily in combination with ribavirin, in comparison to a control group (N = 9) with no dose reduction. RESULTS: Dose reduction gave rise to a complex viral kinetic pattern, which could be only explained by a decrease in interferon effectiveness in blocking virion production. The benefit of the rapid initial viral decline following the high induction dose is lost after dose reduction. In addition, in some patients also the second phase viral decline slope, which is highly predictive of success of treatment, was impaired by the dose reduction resulting in smaller percentage of viral clearance in the dose reduction group. CONCLUSIONS: These findings, while explaining the failure of many induction schedules, suggest that for genotype-1 patients induction therapy should be continued till HCVRNA negativity in serum in order to increase the sustained response rate for chronic hepatitis C

Individualised perioperative blood pressure and fluid therapy in oesophagectomy:study protocol for a randomised clinical trial

INTRODUCTION: Oesophagectomy is the mainstay of curative treatment for oesophageal cancer, but it is associated with a high risk of major complications. Goal-directed fluid therapy and individualised blood pressure management may prevent complications after surgery. Extending goal-directed fluid therapy after surgery and applying an individual blood pressure target may have substantial benefit in oesophagectomy. This is a protocol for a clinical trial implementing a novel haemodynamic protocol from the start of anaesthesia to the next day with the patient’s own night-time blood pressure as the lower threshold.METHODS: This is a single-centre, single-blind, randomised, clinical trial. Oesophagectomy patients are randomised 1:1 for either perioperative haemodynamic management according to a goal-directed fluid therapy protocol with an individual target blood pressure or for standard care. The primary endpoint is the total burden of morbidity and mortality assessed by the Comprehensive Complication Index 30 days after surgery. Secondary endpoints are complications, reoperations, fluid and vasopressor dosage and quality of life at 90 days after surgery.CONCLUSIONS: The results from this trial provide an objective and easy-to-follow algorithm for fluid administration, which may improve patient-centred outcomes in oesophagectomy patients.</p

Individualised perioperative blood pressure and fluid therapy in oesophagectomy:study protocol for a randomised clinical trial

INTRODUCTION: Oesophagectomy is the mainstay of curative treatment for oesophageal cancer, but it is associated with a high risk of major complications. Goal-directed fluid therapy and individualised blood pressure management may prevent complications after surgery. Extending goal-directed fluid therapy after surgery and applying an individual blood pressure target may have substantial benefit in oesophagectomy. This is a protocol for a clinical trial implementing a novel haemodynamic protocol from the start of anaesthesia to the next day with the patient’s own night-time blood pressure as the lower threshold.METHODS: This is a single-centre, single-blind, randomised, clinical trial. Oesophagectomy patients are randomised 1:1 for either perioperative haemodynamic management according to a goal-directed fluid therapy protocol with an individual target blood pressure or for standard care. The primary endpoint is the total burden of morbidity and mortality assessed by the Comprehensive Complication Index 30 days after surgery. Secondary endpoints are complications, reoperations, fluid and vasopressor dosage and quality of life at 90 days after surgery.CONCLUSIONS: The results from this trial provide an objective and easy-to-follow algorithm for fluid administration, which may improve patient-centred outcomes in oesophagectomy patients.</p

Genera of phytopathogenic fungi: GOPHY 1

Genera of Phytopathogenic Fungi (GOPHY) is introduced as a new series of publications in order to provide a stable platform for the taxonomy of phytopathogenic fungi. This first paper focuses on 21 genera of phytopathogenic fungi: Bipolaris, Boeremia, Calonectria, Ceratocystis, Cladosporium, Colletotrichum, Coniella, Curvularia, Monilinia, Neofabraea, Neofusicoccum, Pilidium, Pleiochaeta, Plenodomus, Protostegia, Pseudopyricularia, Puccinia, Saccharata, Thyrostroma, Venturia and Wilsonomyces. For each genus, a morphological description and information about its pathology, distribution, hosts and disease symptoms are provided. In addition, this information is linked to primary and secondary DNA barcodes of the presently accepted species, and relevant literature. Moreover, several novelties are introduced, i.e. new genera, species and combinations, and neo-, lecto- and epitypes designated to provide a stable taxonomy. This first paper includes one new genus, 26 new species, nine new combinations, and four typifications of older names

Evaluation of presumably disease causing SCN1A variants in a cohort of common epilepsy syndromes

Objective: The SCN1A gene, coding for the voltage-gated Na+ channel alpha subunit NaV1.1, is the clinically most relevant epilepsy gene. With the advent of high-throughput next-generation sequencing, clinical laboratories are generating an ever-increasing catalogue of SCN1A variants. Variants are more likely to be classified as pathogenic if they have already been identified previously in a patient with epilepsy. Here, we critically re-evaluate the pathogenicity of this class of variants in a cohort of patients with common epilepsy syndromes and subsequently ask whether a significant fraction of benign variants have been misclassified as pathogenic. Methods: We screened a discovery cohort of 448 patients with a broad range of common genetic epilepsies and 734 controls for previously reported SCN1A mutations that were assumed to be disease causing. We re-evaluated the evidence for pathogenicity of the identified variants using in silico predictions, segregation, original reports, available functional data and assessment of allele frequencies in healthy individuals as well as in a follow up cohort of 777 patients. Results and Interpretation: We identified 8 known missense mutations, previously reported as path

Genome-wide meta-analysis of common variant differences between men and women

The male-to-female sex ratio at birth is constant across world populations with an average of 1.06 (106 male to 100 female live births) for populations of European descent. The sex ratio is considered to be affected by numerous biological and environmental factors and to have a heritable component. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of common allele modest effects at autosomal and chromosome X variants that could explain the observed sex ratio at birth. We conducted a large-scale genome-wide association scan (GWAS) meta-analysis across 51 studies, comprising overall 114 863 individuals (61 094 women and 53 769 men) of European ancestry and 2 623 828 common (minor allele frequency >0.05) single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Allele frequencies were compared between men and women for directly-typed and imputed variants within each study. Forward-time simulations for unlinked, neutral, autosomal, common loci were performed under the demographic model for European populations with a fixed sex ratio and a random mating scheme to assess the probability of detecting significant allele frequency differences. We do not detect any genome-wide significant (P < 5 × 10−8) common SNP differences between men and women in this well-powered meta-analysis. The simulated data provided results entirely consistent with these findings. This large-scale investigation across ∼115 000 individuals shows no detectable contribution from common genetic variants to the observed skew in the sex ratio. The absence of sex-specific differences is useful in guiding genetic association study design, for example when using mixed controls for sex-biased trait