Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0017160 (gastroenteritis)
 11,398 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Patients receiving chemotherapy for acute leukemia were prospectively followed up to determine the frequency, nature and outcome, of episodes of infection during a 6 or 12 month period at each of the participating centres. A total of 605 cycles of chemotherapy were surveyed. Of these, 490 cycles were received by patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 115 by patients with acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL). 241 episodes of infection were recorded during the survey: 179 among ALL patients and 62 among patients of ANLL. Infections were more common during chemotherapy for ANLL than for ALL, occurring in 54% (62/115) and 36% (179/490) of chemotherapeutic cycle respectively. A favorable response to empiric antibacterial agents was seen in 39% (23/59) of episodes in ANLL patients and 77% (134/174) of episodes among ALL patients. Infection presented as fever of unidentified origin in an overwhelming majority (63%) of episodes. Gastroenteritis and pneumonia occurred with a frequency of 11% and 10% while the frequency of all other diagnoses was 3% or less. Overall, E coli and Candida were the most frequently isolated organisms while Staphylococcus aureus and Group A Streptococci were the most frequent isolates from blood and throat swabs, respectively. A high degree of resistance to commonly used antimicrobial agents was seen among the most frequently isolated organisms. About 75% of episodes of infection which did not respond to antibacterial agents responded to empiric systemic antifungal therapy; although fungi were mycologically isolated in only a quarter of these instances. Oropharyngeal candidiasis occurred in association with 3% of chemotherapeutic cycles.
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PMID:Infections in the immunocompromised host: a prospective multicenter survey in patients receiving chemotherapy for acute leukemia. 925 49

Alemtuzumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody directed against lymphocytes through the CD-52 receptor, an antigen being found on > 95% of peripheral blood lymphocytes and monocytes, and to a smaller extent on granulocytes. It is an effective immunotherapeutic agent in patients with malignancies such as non-Hodgkin lymphoma, B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia and T cell pro- lymphocytic leukemia. Adverse side effects are increasingly recognized in patients receiving alemtuzumab, mainly including fever, rigors, nausea/vomiting, skin rash; other severe alemtuzumab-related reactions have also been described, such as lymphopenia and neutropenia leading to both opportunistic (e.g. cytomegalovirus) and non-opportunistic infections. Digestive complications have more rarely been described, i.e.: gastroenteritis and peritonitis. We recently observed a case of particular interest as the patient with T cell prolymphocytic leukaemia treated with alemtuzumab, exhibited symptomatic reactivation of CMV infection and developed subsequently typhlitis.
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PMID:Typhlitis as a complication of alemtuzumab therapy. 1756 96