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Query: UMLS:C0002874 (aplastic anemia)
 5,905 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Clinical evidence for a link between aplastic anaemia, paroxysmal nocturnal haemoglobinuria (PNH) and hypoplastic leukaemia is provided by studies of clonal disorders, which may be a complication of congenital or acquired aplastic anaemia. Fanconi's anaemia is the most common congenital disorder and leukaemia occurs in at least 10% of cases. In acquired aplastic anaemia, a high incidence of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) was noted in patients with aplastic anaemia, seemingly cured of their aplasia by antilymphocyte globulins (ALG). In a recent survey, the 10-year cumulative incidence rates were 9.6% for MDS, 6.6% for acute leukaemia (115-fold higher than in the general population). Biological evidence is provided by bone marrow morphology, as a certain degree of dysmyelopoiesis is not unusual in aplastic anaemia. Cytogenetic analyses in aplastic anaemia are scarce, but data have shown clonal cytogenetic abnormalities at diagnosis in otherwise typical aplastic anaemia. Recently, flow cytometry to assess the glycosyl-phosphatidylinositol (GPI) molecule defect in PNH has demonstrated that a significant proportion of patients with otherwise typical aplastic anaemia have, in fact, a GPI defect due to alterations within the PIG-A gene. Finally, aplastic anaemia patients were recently reported to have molecular evidence of clonal haematopoiesis; this must now be discussed in light of recent clonality studies in normal individuals. The clinical and biological evidence for a link between aplastic anaemia, PNH and hypoplastic leukaemia allows the generation of a model of aplastic anaemia as a possible pre-pre-leukaemic disorder.
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PMID:Could aplastic anaemia be considered a pre-pre-leukaemic disorder? 898 43

The degree of histoincompatibility that can be tolerated, and the relative importance of matching at individual HLA class I and class II locus in bone marrow transplantation (BMT) has not been established. We hypothesized that matching for HLA-DR may not be more important than matching for HLA-A or HLA-B in selection of a donor for successful BMT. We retrospectively analyzed the outcomes of 248 consecutive pediatric patients who received allogeneic BMT from related donors (RD, n = 119) or unrelated donors (URD, n = 129). HLA-A and HLA-B were serologically matched, and HLA-DRB1 were identical by DNA typing in 69% of donor-recipient pairs. Most patients (89%) had hematologic malignancies; the rest had aplastic anemia or a congenital disorder. One HLA-A antigen mismatch was associated with a decrease in survival (p = 0.003) and a delay in granulocyte engraftment (p = 0.02) in recipients of RD marrow; as well as a decrease in survival (p = 0.02) and the development of severe acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) (p = 0.03) in recipients of URD marrow. One HLA-B antigen mismatch was associated with a decrease in the survival (p = 0.05) and the development of severe GVHD (p = 0.0007) in recipients of RD marrow. One HLA-DRB1 allele mismatch was associated only with a decrease in the survival (p = 0.0003) of recipients of RD marrow. Results of this study suggest that disparity in HLA-A and HLA-B antigens may not be better tolerated than disparity in HLA-DR allele in allogeneic BMT. Further studies are warranted to confirm our results.
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PMID:Effect of HLA class I or class II incompatibility in pediatric marrow transplantation from unrelated and related donors. 1129 73

Aplastic anemia (AAI) is a rare life-threatening disorder which is characterized by bi- or tricytopenia and hypoplastic or aplastic bone marrow. AA can present as an acquired or congenital disorder. In recent years it was noted that a subgroup of patients with seemingly acquired AA with onset in adulthood carry mutations which cause or at least predispose to bone marrow failure, e.g. mutations in the genes of the telomerase complex. Options for first-line treatment are allogeneic stem cell transplantation or immunosuppression. The decision depends on severity of the disease, age and comorbidity of the patient and availability of a matched stem cell donor. Probability of survival after HLA-identical sibling transplantation exceeds 90% in young patients with bone marrow as the stem cell source and conditioning with an ATG-containing regimen. Results of matched unrelated donor transplantation have improved substantially over the last 10 years. Matched unrelated donor transplantation is increasingly considered as the first-line treatment for very young patients who are candidates for transplantation, but lack an HLA-identical sibling donor. The gold standard for immunosuppression is the combination of antithymocyte globulin (ATG) and cyclosporine A (CsA). ATG, a polyvalent antibody preparation, is obtained from animals after immunization with human thymocytes. Response rate and overall survival after horse ATG treatment are significantly higher compared to rabbit ATG. Recent trials reported a surprisingly high rate of bi- and trilinear response to treatment with the thrombopoietin receptor agonist eltrombopag in patients refractory to immunosuppression. Ongoing trials now address the potential role of eltrombopag as an adjunct to immunosuppression in first-line treatment.
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PMID:[Aplastic anemia: Current state of diagnosis and treatment]. 2621 66