Potential Usefulness of Lifetime Globotriaosylsphingosine Exposure at Diagnosis and Baseline Modified Disease Severity Score in Early-Diagnosed Patients With Fabry Disease.

BACKGROUND: Fabry disease (FD) is a lysosomal storage disease caused by a deficit of α-galactosidase A (GAL). Recently, plasma globotriaosylsphingosine (lyso-Gb3), a pathogenic analog of a substrate of GAL, has been suggested as a potential biomarker for FD, and disease severity scores, such as the Mainz Severity Score Index (MSSI), the Disease Severity Scoring System (DS3), and FASTEX (FAbry STabilization indEX), are useful tools for evaluating the severity of signs and symptoms in symptomatic FD patients. However, a more useful method of evaluating disease severity in early-diagnosed FD patients such as children, adult females, and asymptomatic patients is needed. Here, we proposed modified MSSI and DS3 scores to which we added phenotype, urinary mulberry bodies, and history of past pain attacks and examined the clinical usefulness of lyso-Gb3 and modified scores for early-diagnosed FD patients. RESULT: In 13 early-diagnosed FD patients, we developed modified MSSI and DS3 scores and examined the correlation of lifetime lyso-Gb3 exposure at diagnosis with the conventional or modified scores. Lifetime lyso-Gb3 exposure was positively correlated only with the modified DS3 score. Additionally, we examined the long-term changes in plasma lyso-Gb3 concentration and in conventional MSSI, DS3, and FASTEX. In males, plasma lyso-Gb3 concentration decreased more rapidly than in females. In all patients, the severity scores were mild and remained nearly stable throughout the follow-up period. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that lifetime lyso-Gb3 exposure and the modified DS3 score are useful in early-diagnosed patients.

Age-adjusted impact of prior COVID-19 on SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine response.

More people with a history of prior infection are receiving SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Understanding the level of protection granted by 'hybrid immunity', the combined response of infection- and vaccine-induced immunity, may impact vaccination strategies through tailored dosing. A total of 36 infected ('prior infection') and 33 SARS-CoV-2 'naïve' individuals participated. Participants provided sera six months after completing a round of BNT162b2 vaccination, to be processed for anti-spike antibody measurements and the receptor binding domain-ACE2 binding inhibition assays. The relationships between antibody titer, groups and age were explored. Anti-spike antibody titers at 6 months post-vaccination were significantly higher, reaching 13- to 17-fold, in the 'prior infection' group. Semi-log regression models showed that participants with 'prior infection' demonstrated higher antibody titer compared with the 'naïve' even after adjusting for age. The enhancement in antibody titer attributable to positive infection history increased from 8.9- to 9.4- fold at age 30 to 19- to 32-fold at age 60. Sera from the 'prior infection' group showed higher inhibition capacity against all six analyzed strains, including the Omicron variant. Prior COVID-19 led to establishing enhanced humoral immunity at 6 months after vaccination. Antibody fold-difference attributed to positive COVID-19 history increased with age, possibly because older individuals are prone to symptomatic infection accompanied by potentiated immune responses. While still pending any modifications of dosing recommendations (i.e. reduced doses for individuals with prior infection), our observation adds to the series of real-world data demonstrating the enhanced and more durable immune response evoked by booster vaccinations following prior infection.

Severe delayed haemolytic anaemia associated with artemether-lumefantrine treatment of malaria in a Japanese traveller.

Delayed haemolytic anaemia has been reported in association with intravenous artesunate treatment in patients with severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria, and furthermore, oral artemisinin-based combination therapies including artemether-lumefantrine (AL) have also been incriminated. However, definite cases of delayed haemolytic anaemia associated with AL appear to be scarce, as reported cases were often treated concomitantly with other anti-malarials. In this study, we report a severe case of delayed haemolytic anaemia following AL alone in a Japanese traveller with severe parasitaemia caused by numerous P. falciparum parasites and a few P. vivax parasites. We also stress the need by further studies to differentiate between delayed haemolytic anaemia and blackwater fever, the latter being another malaria-related haemolytic condition, more clearly than they are now.

Efficacy of metal tip catheter for chronic total occlusion lesions in peripheral arterial disease.

We performed several techniques for chronic total occlusion (CTO) lesions in peripheral arterial disease (PAD). We evaluated the cases using the metal tip catheter (MT). We performed peripheral endovascular therapy (EVT) using MT in 31 cases 32 lesions of PAD from March 2007 to March 2011. Twenty-nine cases were CTO lesions using MT for back up of guidewire or MT alone in order to penetrate like a bougie with the blunt tip of MT. Two cases were acute arterial thrombosis for thrombectomy. Seven cases were CTO of the iliac artery (IA) and 25 cases were of the femoral artery (FA). Seven cases were in-stent restenosis. All 7 cases of IA were successfully treated with the initial techniques. We were unable to penetrate by MT(MT-) in 7 cases of FA, and in 2 cases out of the 7, we were even unable to cross the guidewire. Mean lesion length was 80 ± 42 mm in IA and 188 ± 88 mm in SFA. Among them, MT- was 164 ± 67 mm with no significant differences. Procedure time of EVT for CTO using MT was significantly shorter than other strategies. We had no complications such as perforation by using MT. MT provides high initial success rate by spectacular penetration performance and pushability. MT is a safe and effective device for CTO in PAD.