Real-world effectiveness of caplacizumab vs the standard of care in immune thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura

Immune thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (iTTP) is a thrombotic microangiopathy caused by anti-ADAMTS13 antibodies. Caplacizumab is approved for adults with an acute episode of iTTP in conjunction with plasma exchange (PEX) and immunosuppression. The objective of this study was to analyze and compare the safety and efficacy of caplacizumab vs the standard of care and assess the effect of the concomitant use of rituximab. A retrospective study from the Spanish TTP Registry of patients treated with caplacizumab vs those who did not receive it was conducted. A total of 155 patients with iTTP (77 caplacizumab, 78 no caplacizumab) were included. Patients initially treated with caplacizumab had fewer exacerbations (4.5% vs 20.5%; P <.05) and less refractoriness (4.5% vs 14.1%; P <.05) than those who were not treated. Time to clinical response was shorter when caplacizumab was used as initial treatment vs caplacizumab used after refractoriness or exacerbation. The multivariate analysis showed that its use in the first 3 days after PEX was associated with a lower number of PEX (odds ratio, 7.5; CI, 2.3-12.7; P <.05) and days of hospitalization (odds ratio, 11.2; CI, 5.6-16.9; P <.001) compared with standard therapy. There was no difference in time to clinical remission in patients treated with caplacizumab compared with the use of rituximab. No severe adverse event was described in the caplacizumab group. In summary, caplacizumab reduced exacerbations and refractoriness compared with standard of care regimens. When administered within the first 3 days after PEX, it also provided a faster clinical response, reducing hospitalization time and the need for PEX

Real-world effectiveness of caplacizumab vs the standard of care in immune thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura

Immune thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (iTTP) is a thrombotic microangiopathy caused by anti-ADAMTS13 antibodies. Caplacizumab is approved for adults with an acute episode of iTTP in conjunction with plasma exchange (PEX) and immunosuppression. The objective of this study was to analyze and compare the safety and efficacy of caplacizumab vs the standard of care and assess the effect of the concomitant use of rituximab. A retrospective study from the Spanish TTP Registry of patients treated with caplacizumab vs those who did not receive it was conducted. A total of 155 patients with iTTP (77 caplacizumab, 78 no caplacizumab) were included. Patients initially treated with caplacizumab had fewer exacerbations (4.5% vs 20.5%; P < .05) and less refractoriness (4.5% vs 14.1%; P < .05) than those who were not treated. Time to clinical response was shorter when caplacizumab was used as initial treatment vs caplacizumab used after refractoriness or exacerbation. The multivariate analysis showed that its use in the first 3 days after PEX was associated with a lower number of PEX (odds ratio, 7.5; CI, 2.3-12.7; P < .05) and days of hospitalization (odds ratio, 11.2; CI, 5.6-16.9; P < .001) compared with standard therapy. There was no difference in time to clinical remission in patients treated with caplacizumab compared with the use of rituximab. No severe adverse event was described in the caplacizumab group. In summary, caplacizumab reduced exacerbations and refractoriness compared with standard of care regimens. When administered within the first 3 days after PEX, it also provided a faster clinical response, reducing hospitalization time and the need for PEX

A Hybrid Intelligent Modeling approach for predicting the solar thermal panel energy production

There is no doubt that the European Union is undergoing an ecological transition, with renewable energies accounting for an increasing share of energy consumption in the Member States. In Spain, solar energy is one of these rapidly expanding renewable sources. This study analyzes the solar energy production of a panel in the Spanish region of Galicia. It has been demonstrated that the solar energy produced by this panel can be predicted using a hybrid stepwise system. The missing value imputation is a key step in the process. This involves combining regression and clustering techniques on different subdivisions of the complete dataset, starting with a smaller and less complete dataset and performing appropriate imputations to create a larger and more complete collection. Finally, the dataset is divided into more relevant subsets for regression analysis to calculate the amount of solar energy generated. The imputing missing values using an Artificial Neural Network resulted in a more valid dataset for further processing than eliminating rows with corrupted or empty values. Also, properly applying clustering techniques gives better results than working on the whole dataset.Míriam Timiraos’s research was supported by the “Xunta de Galicia” (Regional Government of Galicia), Spain through grants to industrial PhD (http://gain.xunta.gal/), under the “Doutoramento Industrial 2022” grant with reference: 04_IN606D_2022_2692965. Funding for open access charge: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG. CITIC, as a Research Center of the University System of Galicia, is funded by Consellería de Educación, Universidade e Formación Profesional of the Xunta de Galicia through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Secretaría Xeral de Universidades (Ref. ED431G 2019/01)