Severity Of Clinical Involvement Research Articles

Clinical and Genetic Characteristics of Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy in Iranian Patients

Background: Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy (LGMD) is a bothersome muscle disease associated with weakness of the shoulder and pelvic girdle. Objectives: The study aimed to determine the genetic diversity and relative frequency of various forms of LGMD in Iranian children. Methods: In this descriptive research, 60 children referred to the neurology or emergency department of the Pediatric Medical Center were studied from April 2019 to April 2020. Additional tests (muscle biopsy and genetic testing) were performed to confirm the diagnosis of LGMDs. Quantitative data such as disease level, motor, respiratory, and cardiac functions, and molecular data underwent statistical analysis. Results: A total of 41 patients with a mean age of 11.1 were studied. Twenty-two patients were diagnosed with genetic tests and 19 with muscle biopsies. Also, there were 26.8% cases of alpha sarcoglycanopathy, 24.4% beta sarcoglycanopathy, 17.1% gamma sarcoglycanopathy, 7.3% calpainopathy, 7.3% dysferlinopathy, 7.3% dystroglycanopathy, 7.3% titinopathy, and one case of laminopathy. Among genetically confirmed individuals, 27.3% had SGCB mutation, and 18.2% had SGCA mutation. A significant relationship was seen between the mutation type and creatine phosphokinase (CPK) levels (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The prevalence of alpha and beta sarcoglycanopathy phenotypes in the study population showed that the severity of clinical involvement may be predicted by SGCB gene mutation and sarcoglycan expression.

Host-Based Treatments for Severe COVID-19.

COVID-19 has been a global health problem since 2020. There are different spectrums of manifestation of this disease, ranging from asymptomatic to extremely severe forms requiring admission to intensive care units and life-support therapies, mainly due to severe pneumonia. The progressive understanding of this disease has allowed researchers and clinicians to implement different therapeutic alternatives, depending on both the severity of clinical involvement and the causative molecular mechanism that has been progressively explored. In this review, we analysed the main therapeutic options available to date based on modulating the host inflammatory response to SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients with severe and critical illness. Although current guidelines are moving toward a personalised treatment approach titrated on the timing of presentation, disease severity, and laboratory parameters, future research is needed to identify additional biomarkers that can anticipate the disease course and guide targeted interventions on an individual basis.

Clinical and genetic spectrum in limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2E.

To determine the clinical spectrum of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy 2E (LGMD2E) and to investigate whether genetic or biochemical features can predict the phenotype of the disease. All LGMD2E patients followed in participating centers were included. A specific clinical protocol was created, including quantitative evaluation of motor, respiratory, and cardiac function. Phenotype was defined as severe or mild if the age at loss of ambulation occurred before or after 18 years. Molecular analysis of SGCB gene and biochemical features of muscle biopsies were reviewed. Thirty-two patients were included (16 male, 16 female; age 7-67 years; 15 severe, 12 mild, and 5 unknown). Neurologic examination showed proximal muscle weakness in all patients, but distal involvement was also observed in patients with severe disease early in the disease course. Cardiac involvement was observed in 20 patients (63%) even before overt muscle involvement. Six patients had restrictive respiratory insufficiency requiring assisted ventilation (19%). Seventeen different mutations were identified, and 3 were recurrent. The c.377_384dup (13 alleles) was associated with the severe form, the c.-22_10dup (10) with the milder form, and the c.341C>T (9) with both. The entire sarcoglycan complex was undetectable by muscle immunohistochemistry or Western blot in 9/10 severe cases and reduced in 7/7 mild cases. The residual amount of sarcoglycan in muscle resulted a predictor of age at loss of ambulation. This study expands the spectrum of phenotype in β-sarcoglycanopathy and provides strong evidence that severity of clinical involvement may be predicted by SGCB gene mutation and sarcoglycan protein expression.

Friedreich's ataxia: clinical involvement and evoked potentials.

In 15 patients definitely affected by Friedreich's ataxia, precocious SEP abnormalities were constantly recorded independent of the duration of symptoms and the severity of clinical involvement; VEPs were frequently involved, but neither VEP abnormalities, nor visual impairment could be correlated with the severity or duration of Friedreich's ataxia clinical involvement; BAEPs were, to different extents, abnormal. These were completely dissociated from hearing disorders and significantly correlated (P less than 0.001) with Friedreich's ataxia clinical disability. Our observation of increased latency of the VEP P100 component and the early disappearance of BAEP Wave V with persistence of Wave I is in contrast with the hypothesis that changes are related to primary axonal degeneration. For practical purposes SEPs could help in the early diagnosis of Friedreich's ataxia, and BAEPs could be used for the electrophysiological monitoring of its clinical progression.

Evidence of oxidative stress in familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy type 1.

To evaluate the oxidative state in patients with familial amyloidotic polyneuropathy type 1 (FAP1). From 3 unrelated families, patients with FAP1 carrying a transthyretin Met-30 mutation were studied. The diagnosis was confirmed by genetic analysis. Eleven of 21 patients carried the mutation; all were symptomatic and were clinically assessed using a clinical score. All of the patients were evaluated for copper-zinc superoxide dismutase type 1 activity in red blood cells using spectrophotometry. Plasma total reactive antioxidant potential was studied using a chemiluminescent method. The results were compared with those obtained from an age-matched control group. A public and academic multidisciplinary research clinic. Six of the 11 FAP1-positive patients disclosed superoxide dismutase type 1 activity values greater than 55 U/mg of protein (upper control limit), whereas 9 of 10 patients in whom total reactive antioxidant potential was measured had values below the lower limit of the control group. No relationship was found between the levels of superoxide dismutase type 1 activity and the severity of the clinical involvement. Oxidative stress may be part of the mechanisms leading to tissue damage in patients with FAP1. The lack of correlation between the laboratory findings and the severity of clinical involvement may signal that oxidative processes are at work throughout the natural history of the disease.

Familial chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Immunologic and cellular characterization.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia developed in four of five siblings, whose father succumbed to the same disease. The pattern of immune deficiency in the leukemic siblings resembled that found in nonfamilial cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and was correlated with the severity of clinical involvement. In three siblings the peripheral blood leukemic cells shared delta-heavy and kappa-light chains as the only detectable surface immunoglobulin, suggesting that on a cellular and molecular level the chronic lymphocytic leukemia in family members is identical. The fourth and youngest sibling had no peripheral blood lymphocytes with detectable surface immunoglobulin. An inherited defect in the class of cells destined to express delta-heavy and kappa-light chains appears to underlie susceptibility to leukemia in this family.