Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0851184 (thinning)
 11,252 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

In three patients, a 36-year-old HIV seropositive homosexual man and two women aged 35 and 59 years who had acquired HIV infection through heterosexual contact, signs of lipodystrophy developed after prolonged anti-HIV triple therapy. The observed syndrome is seen after prolonged use of HIV protease inhibitors: it is characterized by peripheral fat wasting, central fat accumulation, hyperlipidaemia and insulin resistance. Typically the subcutaneous fatty tissue disappears resulting in prominent zygomata, veins and muscles and thinning of extremities and buttocks. In addition to abdominal fat accumulation, there have been reports on the occurrence of a dorsocervical fat pad, the so-called buffalo hump. Lipodystrophy caused by protease inhibitors is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Recognition of the syndrome is essential for adequate follow-up and possible treatment.
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PMID:[Lipodystrophy and 'buffalo hump' during treatment with HIV protease inhibitors]. 1006 60

Lipodystrophies, characterized by reduction of subcutaneous fat over part or all of the body surface, are uncommon. Their causes are unknown. Recently, lipodystrophy has been reported in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients taking protease inhibitors, which have been recommended since 1996 as standard therapy for HIV disease in combination with nucleoside analogues. In these cases, lipodystrophy consists of an association of peripheral lipoatrophy with central adiposity. We report four HIV-infected men on protease inhibitors who developed a disfiguring lipodystrophy. In three of them, the protease inhibitor was administered for a mean duration of 21.5 months (range 19-23) with good immunological and virological responses. Patient 4 had been treated for 2 years with successive combinations of protease inhibitors with nucleoside analogues without success. The four patients progressively developed an increase in abdominal girth associated with fat wasting of the face and legs. Two of them had recurrent paronychia of the great toes. Triglyceride levels were moderately increased in all patients, and one had a slightly increased cholesterol level. One patient had elevated glucose and insulin plasma levels during a glucose tolerance test. In two patients, a deep biopsy taken from the thigh showed thinning of the subcutaneous fat without other morphological changes. Computed tomographic scans of the face and abdomen confirmed the loss of almost all subcutaneous fat of the cheek and temporal regions, and abdominal perivisceral fat accumulation. For patients 1-3, the protease inhibitor was replaced by a non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor. Nine months later, dysmorphic changes had not regressed, but lipid abnormalities had returned to normal and the paronychia had disappeared.
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PMID:Lipodystrophy associated with protease inhibitors. 1073 57

Use of the commonly prescribed protease inhibitor Crixivan appears to result in a bizarre adverse effect, despite its desirable effects on T-cell count and viral load. This adverse effect is more common in women than men, and includes the following symptoms: (1) limb wasting, (2) fat gain in the torso, (3) breast enlargement, (4) skin thinning, (4) vein enlargement, (5) irregular periods, (6) high blood pressure and high blood glucose, (6) fatigue, and (7) decreased sex drive. It is believed that 5 to 10 percent of patients taking Crixivan suffer from some of these symptoms, but the percentage would probably be much higher if the number of women alone were studied. Some physicians have been unsupportive about complaints of these symptoms, and have told their patients to exercise or that the changes may be due to aging. One suggestion for dealing with these symptoms is to get body composition measurements prior to starting a protease-containing regimen. Exercise continues to remain important, primarily to prevent wasting. However, dieting is not recommended since it does not reduce the fat deposits and it does contribute to wasting of the limbs. If the symptoms become intolerable, a change in regimen may be needed.
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PMID:The new body of AIDS: Crixivan bellies, legs, and humps. 1136 90

Effective therapies are available that can stop or slow down the progression of HIV infection. Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is a combination of antiretroviral drugs such as viral protease inhibitors or nucleoside-analogue reverse-transcriptase inhibitors. Among the side effects due to these drugs, lipodystrophy is a pathology characterized by fat wasting in face and limbs, accumulation of visceral fat, breast adiposity, cervical fat-pads, hyperlipidemia (hypertriglyceridemia and hypercholesterolemia), insulin resistance, and lactic acidemia. The main clinical features include peripheral fat loss (presumed lipoatrophy in the face, limbs, and buttocks) and central fat accumulation (within the abdomen, breasts, and over the dorsocervical spine, so-called "buffalo hump"). Histopathological features disclose a peculiar type of involutional lipodystrophy. Skin biopsies generally show thinning of the subcutaneous fat, associated with fibrosis, lipogranuloma and sometimes vessel proliferation. There is still an open debate concerning the precise responsibility of HAART as well as the metabolic pathways and mechanisms that are involved in the onset of lipodystrophy. There is no proven therapy for any component of lipodystrophy syndrome.
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PMID:[Antiretroviral treatments-related lipodystrophy syndrome: clinico-pathological findings]. 1632 57

A proportion of patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) without acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibodies have antibodies to muscle-specific kinase (MuSK). MG with MuSK antibodies (MuSK-MG) is often associated with persistent bulbar involvement, including marked facial weakness and tongue muscle wasting. The extent of muscle wasting in MuSK-MG, and whether it is also found in the few acetylcholine receptor (AChR-MG) patients who have persistent bulbar involvement, is not clear. We studied 12 MuSK-MG patients and recruited 14 AChR-MG patients matched broadly for age, sex ratio, duration of disease and degree of ocular, bulbar and facial weakness. We used coronal and sagittal T1-weighted (T1W) and T2-weighted (T2W) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess muscle wasting in facial and tongue muscles. Hyperintense signal on T1W MRI and comparison of axial T1W sequences with cUTE sequences were used to assess fibrous/fatty tissue in the tongue. We compared the results with those of four patients with myotonic dystrophy and 12 healthy individuals. We correlated the changes with clinical and treatment histories, and established a new ocular-bulbar-facial-respiratory (OBFR) score. At the time of study, none of the clinical measures, including the OBFR score, differed between the two MG groups. MRI demonstrated thinning of the buccinator, orbicularis oris (O.oris) and orbicularis oculi (O.oculi) muscles in MuSK-MG patients compared with healthy controls, whereas thinning of these muscles was not significant in AChR-MG. Tongue areas with T1W high signal were increased in MuSK-MG patients and the intensity of the signal on axial T1W sequences was greater in MuSK-MG than in controls. To look for possible correlations between imaging and clinical findings, we pooled results from all MG patients. The duration of treatment with prednisolone at >40 mg on alternate days (AD) correlated positively with the percentage of tongue area with high signal (P = 0.006) and negatively with MRI measurements of individual muscles and with the mean muscle dimensions (P = 0.001). The new OBFR score correlated positively with current Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America grades and with the percentage of high signal (P = 0.004) and negatively with the mean muscle dimensions (P < 0.001). The results show that bulbar and facial muscle weakness and wasting are associated with significant muscle atrophy and fatty replacement in MuSK-MG, which was not found in the AChR-MG patients. MuSK antibodies per se may predispose to muscle thinning, but the difficulties in obtaining clinical remission under steroid therapy in some patients, resulting in long duration of treatment with higher doses (>40 mg AD), may be an additional factor.
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PMID:MRI and clinical studies of facial and bulbar muscle involvement in MuSK antibody-associated myasthenia gravis. 1667 91

We report a young male of autosomal recessive limb girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD) with positive family history presented with gradual onset proximal muscle weakness in all four limbs since eight years and thinning of shoulders, arms and thighs. Neurological examination revealed atrophy of both shoulders with wasting of both deltoids thinning of thighs and pseudo hypertrophy of both calves, hypotonia in all four limbs. Gower's sign was positive. Winging of scapula was present. Power was 3/5 at both shoulders, 4/5 at both elbows, 5/5 at both wrists, 3/5 at both hip joints, 3/5 at both knees, 5/5 at both ankles. All deep tendon reflexes and superficial reflexes were present with plantars bilateral flexors. Electromyography (EMG) showed myopathic pattern. He had elevated creatinine phosphokinase levels and muscle biopsy findings consistent with muscular dystrophy.
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PMID:Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy (LGMD): Case Report. 2573 22

We present the hypothesis that advanced stage cancer is also a heart failure syndrome. It can develop independently of or in addition to cardiotoxic effects of anti-cancer therapies. This includes an increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias. We suggest the pathophysiologic link for these developments includes generalized muscle wasting (i.e. sarcopenia) due to tissue homeostasis changes leading to cardiac wasting associated cardiomyopathy. Cardiac wasting with thinning of the ventricular wall increases ventricular wall stress, even in the absence of ventricular dilation. In addition, arrhythmias may be facilitated by cellular wasting processes affecting structure and function of electrical cells and conduction pathways. We submit that in some patients with advanced cancer (but not terminal cancer), heart failure therapy or defibrillators may be relevant treatment options. The key points in selecting patients for such therapies may be the predicted life expectancy, quality of life at intervention time, symptomatic burden, and consequences for further anti-cancer therapies. The cause of death in advanced cancer is difficult to ascertain and consensus on event definitions in cancer is not established yet. Clinical investigations on this are called for. Broader ethical considerations must be taken into account when aiming to target cardiovascular problems in cancer patients. We suggest that focused attention to evaluating cardiac wasting and arrhythmias in cancer will herald a further evolution in the rapidly expanding field of cardio-oncology. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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PMID:Advanced cancer is also a heart failure syndrome - an hypothesis. 3324 8