Is It Safe to Switch From Intravenous Immunoglobulin to Subcutaneous Immunoglobulin in Patients With Common Variable Immunodeficiency and Autoimmune Thrombocytopenia?

BACKGROUND: A significant amount of common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) patients manifest with autoimmunity. Particularly, autoimmune thrombocytopenia (AITP) is commonly seen. Intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG) are an established treatment option for both, CVID and AITP. Nonetheless, due to fewer systemic side effects, immunoglobulins are increasingly applied subcutaneously (SCIG). OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy and safety of IVIG and SCIG treatment in patients with both CVID and clinical relevant thrombocytopenia in the prevention of AITP bouts. METHODS: Patients with both CVID and AITP were enrolled at the Centre for Chronic Immunodeficiency in Freiburg, Germany and at the Royal Free Hospital, London, UK. Clinical and laboratory features of patients were collected and analyzed. RESULTS: This retrospective study recruited 61 adult patients between 19 and 71 years of age who had a diagnosis of CVID and at least one bout of thrombocytopenia defined as a platelet count of <50,000/µl if bleeding episodes occurred, or a platelet count of <20,000/µl without bleeding. Thirty patients received immunoglobulin through IVIG, and 31 patients were on SCIG replacement. One patient of the IVIG-group was excluded, because of a diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. We did not find a higher occurrence of thrombocytopenic events in CVID patients who received SCIG, compared to CVID patients who had IVIG, but we identified a low IgG through level as a risk factor for AITP bouts. CONCLUSION: SCIG is at least as safe as IVIG for patients with CVID and concomitant AITP. However, an IgG through level under 7 g/l is a key factor for the development of AITP.

Phenotype, penetrance, and treatment of 133 cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4-insufficient subjects.

BACKGROUND: Cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) is a negative immune regulator. Heterozygous CTLA4 germline mutations can cause a complex immune dysregulation syndrome in human subjects. OBJECTIVE: We sought to characterize the penetrance, clinical features, and best treatment options in 133 CTLA4 mutation carriers. METHODS: Genetics, clinical features, laboratory values, and outcomes of treatment options were assessed in a worldwide cohort of CTLA4 mutation carriers. RESULTS: We identified 133 subjects from 54 unrelated families carrying 45 different heterozygous CTLA4 mutations, including 28 previously undescribed mutations. Ninety mutation carriers were considered affected, suggesting a clinical penetrance of at least 67%; median age of onset was 11 years, and the mortality rate within affected mutation carriers was 16% (n = 15). Main clinical manifestations included hypogammaglobulinemia (84%), lymphoproliferation (73%), autoimmune cytopenia (62%), and respiratory (68%), gastrointestinal (59%), or neurological features (29%). Eight affected mutation carriers had lymphoma, and 3 had gastric cancer. An EBV association was found in 6 patients with malignancies. CTLA4 mutations were associated with lymphopenia and decreased T-, B-, and natural killer (NK) cell counts. Successful targeted therapies included application of CTLA-4 fusion proteins, mechanistic target of rapamycin inhibitors, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. EBV reactivation occurred in 2 affected mutation carriers after immunosuppression. CONCLUSIONS: Affected mutation carriers with CTLA-4 insufficiency can present in any medical specialty. Family members should be counseled because disease manifestation can occur as late as 50 years of age. EBV- and cytomegalovirus-associated complications must be closely monitored. Treatment interventions should be coordinated in clinical trials.

Rapid Flow Cytometry-Based Test for the Diagnosis of Lipopolysaccharide Responsive Beige-Like Anchor (LRBA) Deficiency.

The diagnosis of lipopolysaccharide-responsive beige-like-anchor-protein (LRBA) deficiency currently relies on gene sequencing approaches that do not support a timely diagnosis and clinical management. We developed a rapid and sensitive test for clinical implementation based on the detection of LRBA protein by flow cytometry in peripheral blood cells after stimulation. LRBA protein was assessed in a prospective cohort of 54 healthy donors and 57 patients suspected of LRBA deficiency. Receiver operating characteristics analysis suggested an LRBA:MFI ratio cutoff point of 2.6 to identify LRBA-deficient patients by FACS with 94% sensitivity and 80% specificity and to discriminate them from patients with a similar clinical picture but other disease-causing mutations. This easy flow cytometry-based assay allows a fast screening of patients with suspicion of LRBA deficiency reducing therefore the number of patients requiring LRBA sequencing and accelerating the treatment implementation. Detection of biallelic mutations in LRBA is however required for a definitive diagnosis.

Respiratory Infections and Antibiotic Usage in Common Variable Immunodeficiency.

BACKGROUND: Patients with common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) suffer frequent respiratory tract infections despite immunoglobulin replacement and are prescribed significant quantities of antibiotics. The clinical and microbiological nature of these exacerbations, the symptomatic triggers to take antibiotics, and the response to treatment have not been previously investigated. OBJECTIVES: To describe the nature, frequency, treatment, and clinical course of respiratory tract exacerbations in patients with CVID and to describe pathogens isolated during respiratory tract exacerbations. METHODS: We performed a prospective diary card exercise in 69 patients with CVID recruited from a primary immunodeficiency clinic in the United Kingdom, generating 6210 days of symptom data. We collected microbiology (sputum microscopy and culture, atypical bacterial PCR, and mycobacterial culture) and virology (nasopharyngeal swab multiplex PCR) samples from symptomatic patients with CVID. RESULTS: There were 170 symptomatic exacerbations and 76 exacerbations treated by antibiotics. The strongest symptomatic predictors for commencing antibiotics were cough, shortness of breath, and purulent sputum. There was a median delay of 5 days from the onset of symptoms to commencing antibiotics. Episodes characterized by purulent sputum responded more quickly to antibiotics, whereas sore throat and upper respiratory tract symptoms responded less quickly. A pathogenic virus was isolated in 56% of respiratory exacerbations and a potentially pathogenic bacteria in 33%. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with CVID delay and avoid treatment of symptomatic respiratory exacerbations, which could result in structural lung damage. However, viruses are commonly represented and illnesses dominated by upper respiratory tract symptoms respond poorly to antibiotics, suggesting that antibiotic usage could be better targeted.

Boosting qualifies capture-recapture methods for estimating the comprehensiveness of literature searches for systematic reviews.

OBJECTIVE: Capture-recapture methods were proposed to evaluate the comprehensiveness of systematic literature searches. We investigate the statistical feasibility of capture-recapture techniques with model selection for estimating the number of missing references in literature searches using two systematic reviews in gastroenterology and hematology. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: First, we compared manually selected Poisson regression models that differ with respect to included interactions. Secondly, we performed selection via componentwise boosting, which provides automatic variable selection. The proposed boosting technique is a regularized, stepwise procedure allowing to distinguish between mandatory and optional variables. Results from all models were compared based on Akaike's Information Criterion and the Bayesian Information Criterion. RESULTS: For the first example, the best manually selected model suggested a number of 82 missing articles (95% CI: 52-128), whereas the boosting technique provided 127 (95% CI: 86-186) missing articles. For the second example, 140 (95% CI: 116-168) missing articles were estimated for the manually selected and 188 (95% CI: 159-223) for the automatically selected model. CONCLUSION: Capture-recapture analysis requires the selection of an appropriate model. Because of problems of variable selection and overfitting, manual model selection yielded large estimates, varying markedly, with broad confidence intervals. By contrast, boosting was robust against overfitting and automatically created an appropriate model for inference.