Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0018133 (graft-versus-host disease)
 18,032 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We experienced a case of demyelinating, inflammatory cervical myelopathy after bone marrow transplantation for chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML). A 28 years-old man who had been having skin and liver graft versus host disease (GVHD), developed paresthesia in the legs, and then, difficulty in walking. At the time of admission, weakness of the hands also appeared. There was no evidence of CML recurrence after bone marrow transplantation. The myelopathy was characterized by multiple abnormal spotty signal intensities in the cervical spinal cord on MRI and these were in part Gd-enhanced. A course of pulse-dose methylprednisolone was given, followed by prednisolone. The neurological deficits were improved to the degree of full recovery. The inflammatory myelopathy together with a plaque in the cerebral hemisphere, moderately delayed p-100 latency of VEP and elevation of myelin basic protein of the spinal fluid, is difficult to distinguish from that of multiple sclerosis. Although the precise mechanism of GVHD-myelopathy is not known, it is likely that the donor myelin-reactive T-lymphocytes were non-specifically activated with GVHD reaction and directed to a central nervous system. Tacrolimus might have precipitated the focal immune reaction by way of cytotoxic effects on brain capillaries. The "GVHD-myelopathy" presented here may thus be akin to multiple sclerosis in its immune mechanism.
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PMID:[A case of inflammatory demyelinative myelopathy after bone marrow transplantation]. 1108 92

Thalidomide, an oral drug introduced in Germany in 1953 as a mild sedative, was withdrawn from the world market when its teratogenic effect was discovered some years later. It has since been selectively reintroduced to treat a variety of autoimmune or inflammatory diseases such as erythema nodosum leprosum, prurigo nodularis, graft-versus-host disease, and discoid lupus erythematosus (DLE). We report on three patients with long-standing, severe DLE showing no response to systemic first-, second- and third-line treatments. After four weeks of therapy with thalidomide the skin lesions had improved dramatically and after three to six months all three patients responded with an almost complete remission. The side effects of thalidomide, especially somnolence and paresthesias, were minor and well tolerated by the patients. Our data confirm that thalidomide provides one of the most useful therapeutic alternatives for chronic refractory DLE, despite the risks of teratogenicity and polyneuropathy.
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PMID:[Rediscovery of thalidomide. Successful treatment of discoid lupus erythematosus]. 1154 46

Docetaxel-induced skin reactions include hypersensitivity, edema, skin toxicity with erythrodysesthesia syndrome, infusion site reactions, alopecia, nail onycholysis, nail pigmentation, photosensitivity, scleroderma, and others, for example, stomatitis and paresthesias. However, of all reported effects, the acral erythrodysesthesia syndrome has only rarely been described in the literature. We report on two female patients with breast cancer who on treatment with docetaxel developed acral erythrodysesthesia syndrome. It presented as bizarrely shaped, burning skin reactions at their hands and feet. Histology of skin biopsies revealed microscopic damages to the eccrine sweat glands in both patients. Skin patch testing with docetaxel was negative. None of the reports dealing with side effects of docetaxel chemotherapy has described acral erythrodysesthesia syndrome with the histologic features of syringo-squamous metaplasia and eccrine neutrophilic hidradenitis. We propose here that these characteristic histologic features are essential in the differentiation from fixed drug eruption and localized graft-versus-host disease.
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PMID:Acral erythrodysesthesia syndrome caused by intravenous infusion of docetaxel in breast cancer. 1247 8

A 23-year-old woman with juvenile-onset alpha-mannosidosis developed an axonal polyneuropathy more than a year following successful unrelated donor (URD) BMT complicated by chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Progressive muscle weakness and paresthesias developed over at least 4 months, and made her nonambulatory. Nerve conduction and EMG studies demonstrated an axonal sensorimotor neuropathy. Cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) IgG was elevated with two peaks not identified in serum. Strength improved after a single course of plasma exchange and continued to improve over 12 months. The response to plasma exchange, elevated CSF IgG production, and evidence of a serum IgM peak suggest an immune-mediated mechanism. Chronic polyneuropathies following BMT are rare and are usually temporally related to GVHD or infection. This patient's disease was unusual because of its late occurrence and chronic onset in the face of resolved GVHD and in the absence of infection.
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PMID:Late occurrence of chronic immune-mediated axonal polyneuropathy following bone marrow transplant for juvenile-onset alpha-mannosidosis. 1456 98