Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0018801 (heart failure)
 72,216 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We describe a 30-year-old man with end-stage heart failure after therapy with mitoxantrone for multiple sclerosis. A successful orthotopic heart transplantation was performed when intensified medical therapy failed to improve the patient's hemodynamics. In spite of the severe underlying disease he did well on dual immunosuppression with methylprednisone and cyclosporine. Neurologic symptoms remained stable throughout the procedure and, after 2 months, he resumed preoperative ambulatory status. Eight years after the operation, the patient is now in New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class I status. Using canes, he is able to walk short distances. Repeated urinary tract infections caused by Escherichia coli became a problem, but have been controlled by long-term oral antibiotic prophylaxis with trimethoprim.
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PMID:Heart transplantation in a patient with multiple sclerosis and mitoxantrone-induced cardiomyopathy. 1513 85

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common form of inflammatory arthritis and can, if left untreated, result in significant disability and early death. It is also associated with large direct and indirect costs to the individual and to society. Early and aggressive disease modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) treatment of patients at risk of erosive disease has improved the outcome in the majority, but not all, RA patients. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) appears to be a key mediator of the inflammatory and destructive process in RA, and consequently inhibitors of TNF action have been tested in randomized controlled trials in patients with RA. The results of these studies have suggested that TNF inhibitors are potent DMARD particularly when combined with methotrexate. They appear well tolerated with the commonest adverse events related to their parenteral route of administration, and the serious but rare side-effects being various infections, notably tuberculosis, multiple sclerosis, and worsening of cardiac failure. Treatment costs are high and range from $15 000 to $25 000 per patient per year. Etanercept, adalimumab and infliximab have recently been subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in Australia for patients with severe DMARD-resistant RA. The availability of TNF inhibitors in RA represents a significant advance in the treatment of patients with severe RA.
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PMID:Tumour necrosis factor inhibitors: risks and benefits in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. 1561 Feb 14

Treatment of patients with mitoxantrone for worsening multiple sclerosis (MS) requires careful monitoring for possible adverse events. Common side effects that are minor and easily managed include transient leukopenia and elevated liver enzymes, nausea, alopecia, bluish discoloration of urine, and urinary tract infections. Amenorrhea, severe infection, cardiac toxicity, and toxic leukemias are more serious adverse events associated with mitoxantrone treatment but occur infrequently. The potential for clinically significant heart failure is low and is dose-related. Subclinical reductions in left ventricular ejection fraction may occur with serial doses, underscoring the importance of careful monitoring before initiating and during treatment. The risk for chronic cardiomyopathy limits the approved cumulative dose of mitoxantrone for treatment of MS to 140 mg/m2. Dexrazoxane has a cardioprotective effect when used with anthracycline in the treatment of patients with neoplasms. Studies under way address whether concomitant administration of dexrazoxane with mitoxantrone might decrease the risk for cardiac toxicity in MS patients and perhaps increase the allowable cumulative dose of mitoxantrone. A phase IV clinical study of mitoxantrone (RENEW) is in progress to assess the long-term safety and tolerability of treatment. Careful laboratory and cardiac monitoring can reduce the possibility of adverse events and enhance patient safety.
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PMID:Mitoxantrone treatment of multiple sclerosis: safety considerations. 1638 Jun 36

Statins have been shown to effectively reduce cardiovascular events in patients with hypercholesterolemia, diabetes, and coronary disease, and after an acute coronary syndrome in several large-scale clinical trials. Interestingly, numerous studies have suggested that statins exert potentially important effects independent of lipid lowering (ie, improve endothelial function, reduce oxidant stress), and have direct anti-inflammatory, antithrombotic, and plaque-stabilizing effects. These beneficial effects may contribute to cardiovascular protection by statin therapy beyond low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol lowering. Therefore, it remains unclear at present to what extent the beneficial cardiovascular effects of statin treatment are dependent on LDL cholesterol lowering (ie, whether the same effect would be achieved by other modes of lipid lowering). Consequently, statins should be used as a first-line therapy for lipid lowering. Importantly, the observation of LDL cholesterol-independent effects of statins has stimulated clinical studies testing a wider use of statin treatment for diseases that are not thought to be related to increased LDL cholesterol levels, such as in patients with chronic heart failure (in particular dilated cardiomyopathy) and even in inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
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PMID:Nonlipid-lowering effects of statins. 1628 73

A 24-year-old patient with no previous cardiovascular illness or symptoms, was admitted in profound cardiogenic shock related to severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction, accompanied by multiple sclerosis (MS) exacerbation. Initially the patient required mechanical ventilation, inotropic support, and intra-aortic balloon counter-pulsation along with invasive haemodynamic monitoring. Within a few days of high dose corticosteroid therapy patients left ventricular systolic dysfunction returned almost completely to normal, and this was accompanied by dramatic clinical improvement. We review the current literature on the relation between MS and left ventricular systolic dysfunction and heart failure.
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PMID:Cardiogenic shock in a young female with multiple sclerosis. 1675 84

Tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFalpha) antagonists including antibodies and soluble receptors have shown remarkable efficacy in various immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID). As experience with these agents has matured, there is an emerging need to integrate and critically assess the utility of these agents across disease states and clinical sub-specialties. Their remarkable efficacy in reducing chronic damage in Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis has led many investigators to propose a new, 'top down' paradigm for treating patients initially with aggressive regimens to quickly control disease. Intriguingly, in diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma, anti-TNFalpha agents appear to more profoundly benefit patients with more chronic stages of disease but have a relatively weaker or little effect in early disease. While the spectrum of therapeutic efficacy of TNFalpha antagonists widens to include diseases such as recalcitrant uveitis and vasculitis, these agents have failed or even exacerbated diseases such as heart failure and multiple sclerosis. Increasing use of these agents has also led to recognition of new toxicities as well as to understanding of their excellent long-term tolerability. Disconcertingly, new cases of active tuberculosis still occur in patients treated with all TNFalpha antagonists due to lack of compliance with recommendations to prevent reactivation of latent tuberculosis infection. These safety issues as well as guidelines to prevent treatment-associated complications are reviewed in detail in this article. New data on mechanisms of action and development of newer TNFalpha antagonists are discussed in a subsequent article in the Journal. It is hoped that these two review articles will stimulate a fresh assessment of the priorities for research and clinical innovation to improve and extend therapeutic use and safety of TNFalpha antagonism.
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PMID:TNFalpha blockade in human diseases: an overview of efficacy and safety. 1791 45

Stem cells have been the focus of numerous investigations to treat diseases as far ranging as diabetes, chronic heart failure and multiple sclerosis over the past decade. The process of stem-cell-based repair of acute injury involves homing and engrafting of the stem cell of interest to the site of injury followed by either differentiation of the stem cell to indigenous end-organ cells or liberation of paracrine factors that lead to preservation and/or optimization of organ function. Recognition of the ability of stem cells to home to sites of acute injury suggests that, if appropriately defined and harnessed, stem cell homing could serve as a means of local drug delivery through the infusion of genetically engineering stem cells that secrete gene products of interest. The authors have recently demonstrated the use of this approach in preclinical studies of acute myocardial function. In addition, the use of engineered cells that home to appropriate niches have been used to correct genetic deficiency states (i.e., severe combined immunodeficiency, diabetes mellitus) in patients with otherwise chronic debilitating diseases. This review focuses on exploiting stem cell homing for gene transfer and on the state of the art and the challenges that face the field.
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PMID:Exploitation of stem cell homing for gene delivery. 1808 34

(1) Multiple sclerosis is a neurological disorder characterised by disseminated inflammatory lesions of the myelin sheath, the white fatty layer that covers the neurons in the brain and spinal column. The clinical repercussions are highly variable, ranging from minor deficits to severe disability and even death. Some patients have exacerbations separated by remissions of varying length, while others experience fairly steady progression of disability. This review article, based on Prescrire's standard in-house methodology, examines treatments proposed to slow the progression of multiple sclerosis. (2) For exacerbations (4 trials, a total of 140 patients), an improvement was noted in 64% of patients treated with intravenous methylprednisolone for 5 days, versus 40% of patients on placebo. (3) Interferon beta is the best-assessed of the disease-modifying drugs. Various marketed interferon beta products have been compared with one another in trials involving more than 1000 patients in total. There are no major differences in effectiveness or adverse effects. The latter are frequent, especially a flu-like syndrome and depression. (4) After a first episode suggestive of multiple sclerosis (3 trials, a total of 1160 patients), 35% of patients treated with interferon beta subsequently developed the disease, versus 50% of patients in the placebo groups. This advantage seemed to persist for at least 8 years. (5) In relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (4 trials, a total of 1426 patients), interferon beta prevented about one exacerbation every 2.5 to 3 years but had no clear preventive impact on progression of disability. (6) In secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (5 trials, a total of 3082 patients), interferon beta's effectiveness, if present, was limited to patients who continued to have exacerbations. (7) Natalizumab does not appear to be more effective than interferon beta. It is associated with serious adverse effects, about which only limited information is available. (8) Glatiramer has not been shown to prevent exacerbations or progression of disability. Intravenous immunoglobulin is still being tested in multiple sclerosis. In initially aggressive forms of multiple sclerosis, mitoxantrone has a negative risk-benefit balance (2 trials, 236 patients); it prevents less than one exacerbation during two years of treatment but causes heart failure in 1% to 2% of patients after 10 months of treatment. (9) Patients' anxiety as their disability worsens must not overshadow the fact that there are no treatments available with strong clinical effectiveness, and that all existing treatments carry a risk of serious adverse effects. Pending the arrival of something better, only interferon beta has a favourable risk-benefit balance, and only in selected patients.
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PMID:Multiple sclerosis: interferon beta for some serious forms. 1809 25

Fatigue is one of the most frequent symptoms in palliative care patients, reported in .80% of cancer patients and in up to 99% of patients following radio- or chemotherapy. Fatigue also plays a major role in palliative care for noncancer patients, with large percentages of patients with HIV, multiple sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or heart failure reporting fatigue. This paper presents the position of an expert working group of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC), evaluating the available evidence on diagnosis and treatment of fatigue in palliative care patients and providing the basis for future discussions. As the expert group feels that culture and language influence the approach to fatigue in different European countries, a focus was on cultural issues in the assessment and treatment of fatigue in palliative care. As a working definition, fatigue was defined as a subjective feeling of tiredness, weakness or lack of energy. Qualitative differences between fatigue in cancer patients and in healthy controls have been proposed, but these differences seem to be only an expression of the overwhelming intensity of cancer-related fatigue. The pathophysiology of fatigue in palliative care patients is not fully understood. For a systematic approach, primary fatigue, most probably related to high load of proinflammatory cytokines and secondary fatigue from concurrent syndromes and comorbidities may be differentiated. Fatigue is generally recognized as a multidimensional construct, with a physical and cognitive dimension acknowledged by all authors. As fatigue is an inherent word only in the English and French language, but not in other European languages, screening for fatigue should include questions on weakness as a paraphrase for the physical dimension and on tiredness as a paraphrase for the cognitive dimension. Treatment of fatigue should include causal interventions for secondary fatigue and symptomatic treatment with pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions. Strong evidence has been accumulated that aerobic exercise will reduce fatigue levels in cancer survivors and patients receiving cancer treatment. In the final stage of life, fatigue may provide protection and shielding from suffering for the patient and thus treatment may be detrimental. Identification of the time point, where treatment of fatigue is no longer indicated is important to alleviate distress at the end of life.
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PMID:Fatigue in palliative care patients -- an EAPC approach. 1821 74

Statins are pluripotent agents exhibiting multiple non-lipid-lowering actions. Besides their established role in the management of hypercholesterolemia, statins may also have beneficial actions in other pathological conditions, namely: a) osteoporosis and osteoporosis-related bone fractures, b) cancer, c) solid organ transplantation, d) cerebrovascular events (transient ischemic attack and stroke episodes), e) various neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis, f) cardiac arrhythmias and heart failure, g) renal diseases, h) rheumatoid arthritis, i) autoimmune diseases, j) sepsis, and k) allergic asthma. We reviewed the literature searching for studies that support or oppose the use of statins in each proposed indication. In some of these emerging indications, a role for statin treatment is more firmly set; for others, current evidence is more controversial. Future trials may reveal more convincing evidence that will make statin use necessary in the therapeutic management of several diseases.
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PMID:Emerging indications for statins: a pluripotent family of agents with several potential applications. 1822 Jul 99


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