[Case Report of a 14-Year-Old Girl with Addison's Disease Under Initial Presumptive Diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa: Confusingly Similar and Yet so Different?] / Kasuistik einer früh im Lebensverlauf an Morbus Addison erkrankten 14 Jahre alten Patientin bei Verdachtsdiagnose einer Anorexia nervosa.

Case Report of a 14-Year-Old Girl with Addison's Disease Under Initial Presumptive Diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa: Confusingly Similar and Yet so Different? Abstract: Objective: Primary adrenal insufficiency (Addison's disease) is a rare differential diagnosis of anorexia nervosa. This case report presents important differential diagnostic aspects. Methods: We prepared a case report of a 14-year-old female patient according to the CARE guidelines, taking the patient's and the child's parents' view into consideration. Results: The diagnosis of primary adrenocortical insufficiency was reached using specific laboratory diagnostics approximately 9 months after the onset of symptoms, including sudden body weight loss. Significant differential diagnostic aspects were the absence of a body schema disorder and skin hyperpigmentation prominent in the physical examination. The patient experienced a high psychosocial burden because of the unclear diagnosis over 9 months. The diagnosis and substitution therapy with hydrocortisone led to a rapid improvement of the physical and psychological symptoms. Conclusions: This case report emphasizes the importance of a thorough somatic differential diagnosis in the context of a suspected anorexia nervosa.

The prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus with mucoid phenotype in the airways of patients with cystic fibrosis-A prospective study.

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most frequently isolated pathogens in the respiratory tract of CF patients. Recently, we characterized peculiar mucoid S. aureus isolates, which are excessive biofilm formers and which carried a 5bp-deletion within the intergenic region of the ica operon. In this prospective study, we determined the prevalence of mucoid S. aureus-isolates in the airways of CF-patients during a 3-months period. METHODS: We analyzed specimens (sputa, throat swabs) from 81 CF patients who attended two CF centers in Münster, Germany. Ten S. aureus isolates were randomly picked from every S. aureus-positive airway specimen and evaluated for mucoidy using Congo Red agar and phenotypic tests. Mucoid isolates were characterized by spa sequence typing, biofilm production and sequencing of the intergenic region of the ica operon to screen for the 5bp-deletion. RESULTS: In 7 of 81 examined patients (8.6%), we detected mucoid S. aureus phenotypes (37 out of 1050 isolates; 3.5%). Twenty-five mucoid isolates carried the 5bp-deletion. Mucoid isolates produced excessive biofilm and were significantly more resistant to certain antibiotics. CONCLUSIONS: In our prospective study, mucoid S. aureus was present in 8.6% of S. aureus-positive CF-patients. In 6 of 7 patients, mucoid isolates carried the 5bp-deletion, indicating that also other so far not identified mechanisms cause excessive biofilm formation. Further studies are necessary to ascertain the clinical impact of mucoid S. aureus phenotypes on the severity of the CF disease.

Staphylococcus aureus in the airways of cystic fibrosis patients - A retrospective long-term study.

BACKGROUND: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive disease associated with chronic airway infections by Staphylococcus aureus as one of the earliest and most prevalent pathogens. We conducted a retrospective study to determine the S. aureus infection status of CF patients treated since 1994 at two certified CF-centres in Münster, Germany, to get insights into the dynamics of S. aureus airway infection and the clinical impact on lung function on a long-term perspective. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We used data from our microbiological database collected between 1994 and 2016 for patients treated at two centres in Münster, Germany, respectively, to determine the infection status for S. aureus. Furthermore, the resistance to selected antibiotics was determined for all patients' isolates and for 15 patients on a longitudinal basis. In addition, the prevalence of adaptive phenotypes such as small colony variants (SCVs) and mucoid S. aureus was assessed. RESULTS: For this study, 2867 patient years with respiratory specimens (mean of 9.3 years for every patient, range 1-22 years) were evaluated for 283 CF patients (median age of 7 years at the beginning of the observation period, range 0-57 years, 51% male). 18% of patients were rarely infected by S. aureus (≤24% of observation years), 20% of patients intermittently (25-49%) and 61% persistently (≥50% of observation period). Susceptibility testing for 12969 S. aureus isolates resulted in resistance to methicillin in 9%, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole in 10%, levofloxacin in 14%, gentamicin in 20%, erythromycin and/or clindamycin in 30% and penicillin in 80% of all isolates. S. aureus isolates of 15 patients revealed dynamics of resistance with increase, decrease and loss of resistant isolates to the analysed antibiotics during the study period. SCVs were isolated at least once from 42% (n = 118) of patients and mucoid isolates from 2% (n = 7) of patients. In the last study year, 89 patients were infected by S. aureus only, 44 patients by S. aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 18 by P. aeruginosa only. Patients infected by S. aureus only were younger and had better lung function compared to the other two groups. CONCLUSIONS: We determined a high percentage of patients with persistent S. aureus infection. During persistence, mostly fluctuation of resistance against various antibiotics was observed in the isolates indicating acquisition and loss of resistance genes by S. aureus. The prevalence of adaptive phenotypes during long-term persistence was high for SCVs (42% of patients), but low for mucoid isolates (2% of patients), which might be underestimated for mucoid phenotypes due to the retrospective study design and the difficulty to detect mucoid isolates in primary cultures. While patients with S. aureus only had better lung function and were younger, no difference was found between the group of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus co-infection and P. aeruginosa only with previous S. aureus infection.

Prevalence and persistence of Escherichia coli in the airways of cystic fibrosis patients - an unrecognized CF pathogen?

Cystic fibrosis (CF) patients suffer from chronic recurrent bacterial airway infections, which eventually lead to reduced life expectancy. Escherichia coli has not been considered as a CF pathogen. A total of 176 patients were observed over 5.6 years on average from 2002 to 2009 in two CF centers in Muenster, Germany. Sputum and throat swab cultures were screened for E. coli. E. coli isolates were analyzed for clinical microbiologic characteristics as well as strain identity, clonal distribution and phenotypic variability. In 45 patients (25.6%) E. coli was cultured at least once, mostly at medium to high bacterial load and primarily from patients less than 5 and older than 8 years. In 19 patients (10.8%) the same E. coli strain was isolated at least 3 times within a period of more than 6 months, with a mean persistence of 29 months. Multi-locus sequence typing revealed a distinctively strong association of CF E. coli with the B2 major clonal group. During persistence, long-term colonizing strains exhibited phenotypic variability known for typical CF pathogens such as surface capsule overproduction and changes in colony size or hemolytic activity. E. coli was occasionally or persistently isolated in a quarter of CF patients, mostly in very young or older patients. The relatively high bacterial load of E. coli colonization, the distinct association with the highly virulent extra-intestinal B2 clonal group and phenotypic variability in the long-term colonizing strains suggests a previously unrecognized clinical significance of E. coli as a CF pathogen.

Extended Staphylococcus aureus persistence in cystic fibrosis is associated with bacterial adaptation.

Staphylococcus aureus often persists in the airways of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. There is only limited knowledge about bacterial persistence in and adaptation to this new ecological environment. Therefore, we used S. aureus isolates from a unique strain collection, in which all S. aureus isolates recovered from CF patients from two CF centers were stored from more than 150 CF patients for more than a decade. S. aureus early and late isolates from 71 CF patients with long-term staphylococcal colonization of the airways (≥ 5 years) were preselected by genotyping of agr and cap. Identical pairs were subjected to spa-typing and MLST. S. aureus strain pairs of individual patients with the same or closely related spa-type and identical MLST were compared for adaptive changes in important phenotypic and virulence traits. The virulence of three S. aureus strain pairs (early and late isolates) was analyzed in a murine chronic pneumonia model. Strain pairs of 29 individual patients belonged to the same MLST and same or closely related spa-types. The mean persistence of the same clone of S. aureus in 29 CF patients was 8.25 years. Late compared to early isolates were altered in production of capsule (48%), hemolysis (45%), biofilm formation (41%), as well as antibiotic susceptibility (41%), cytotoxicity (34%), colony size (28%), and spa-type (17%). Adaptive changes positively correlated with the length of S. aureus persistence. For seven patients from whom the initial colonizing isolate was recovered, staphylococcal adaptation was most apparent, with capsule production being reduced in five of seven late isolates. In a mouse chronic pneumonia model, all tested isolates strongly induced chronic pneumonia with severe lesions in bronchi and pulmonary parenchyma. Adaptive changes in S. aureus accumulated with the length of persistence in the CF airways, but differed in patients infected with the same S. aureus clonal lineage indicating that individual host factors have an impact on adaptation.

Impact of Newborn Screening on Adult Height in Patients With Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH).

CONTEXT: Treatment of children with classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) due to 21-hydroxylase deficiency is challenging. Linear growth and adult height are compromised according to recent publications. However, most of these data were obtained in the era before CAH newborn screening. DESIGN: Body height of patients with classical CAH diagnosed before and after the establishment of newborn screening were analyzed retrospectively. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We identified 600 patients with classical CAH (227 male) with data on near-adult height (NAH), target height (TH), and information on newborn screening from the electronic German CAH registry (German Society for Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetology). Newborn screening was performed in 101 (16.8%) patients. All patients received hydrocortisone with or without fludrocortisone.To assess the effects of newborn screening, a linear regression model adjusted/stratified for sex and phenotype was used (SAS 9.4). RESULTS: TH corrected NAH (mean; 95% confidence interval) was closer to 0 in patients with CAH and newborn screening [-0.25 standard deviation score (SDS); -0.44 to -0.06] than in patients without newborn screening (-0.44 SDS; -0.52 to -0.36) (P = .069). Screening had no effect on NAH in female patients. In male patients, NAH was significantly better (P = .033) with screening than without screening. After stratifying for CAH phenotype, screening did not affect the NAH of patients with salt-wasting CAH. Patients with simple-virilizing CAH had a significantly better cNAH (P = .034) with screening (0.15 SDS; -0.28-0.59) than without screening (-0.35 SDS; -0.52 to -0.18). CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that newborn screening might be associated with improved NAH in male CAH patients and in patients with simple-virilizing CAH.

Association of Diverse Staphylococcus aureus Populations with Pseudomonas aeruginosa Coinfection and Inflammation in Cystic Fibrosis Airway Infection.

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common pathogens isolated from the airways of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients and often persists for extended periods. There is limited knowledge about the diversity of S. aureus in CF. We hypothesized that increased diversity of S. aureus would impact CF lung disease. Therefore, we conducted a 1-year observational prospective study with 14 patients with long-term S. aureus infection. From every sputum, 40 S. aureus isolates were chosen and characterized in terms of phenotypic appearance (size, hemolysis, mucoidy, and pigmentation), important virulence traits such as nuclease activity, biofilm formation, and molecular typing by spa sequence typing. Data about coinfection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and clinical parameters such as lung function, exacerbation, and inflammatory markers in blood (C-reactive protein [CRP], interleukin 6 [IL-6], and S100A8/9 [calprotectin]) were collected. From 58 visits of 14 patients, 2,319 S. aureus isolates were distinguished into 32 phenotypes (PTs) and 50 spa types. The Simpson diversity index (SDI) was used to calculate the phenotypic and genotypic diversity, revealing a high diversity of PTs ranging from 0.19 to 0.87 among patients, while the diversity of spa types of isolates was less pronounced. The SDI of PTs was positively associated with P. aeruginosa coinfection and inflammatory parameters, with IL-6 being the most sensitive parameter. Also, coinfection with P. aeruginosa was associated with mucoid S. aureus and S. aureus with high nuclease activity. Our analyses showed that in CF patients with long-term S. aureus airway infection, a highly diverse and dynamic S. aureus population was present and associated with P. aeruginosa coinfection and inflammation. IMPORTANCE Staphylococcus aureus can persist for extended periods in the airways of people with cystic fibrosis (CF) in spite of antibiotic therapy and high numbers of neutrophils, which fail to eradicate this pathogen. Therefore, S. aureus needs to adapt to this hostile niche. There is only limited knowledge about the diversity of S. aureus in respiratory specimens. We conducted a 1-year prospective study with 14 patients with long-term S. aureus infection and investigated 40 S. aureus isolates from every sputum in terms of phenotypic appearance, nuclease activity, biofilm formation, and molecular typing. Data about coinfection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and clinical parameters such as lung function, exacerbation, and inflammatory markers in blood were collected. Thirty-two phenotypes (PTs) and 50 spa types were distinguished. Our analyses revealed that in CF patients with long-term S. aureus airway infection, a highly diverse and dynamic S. aureus population was associated with P. aeruginosa coinfection and inflammation.

High Nuclease Activity of Long Persisting Staphylococcus aureus Isolates Within the Airways of Cystic Fibrosis Patients Protects Against NET-Mediated Killing.

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the first and most prevalent pathogens cultured from the airways of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, which can persist there for extended periods. Airway infections in CF patients are characterized by a strong inflammatory response of highly recruited neutrophils. One killing mechanism of neutrophils is the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), which capture and eradicate bacteria by extracellular fibers of neutrophil chromatin decorated with antimicrobial granule proteins. S. aureus secretes nuclease, which can degrade NETs. We hypothesized, that S. aureus adapts to the airways of CF patients during persistent infection by escaping from NET-mediated killing via an increase of nuclease activity. Sputum samples of CF patients with chronic S. aureus infection were visualized by confocal microscopy after immuno-fluorescence staining for NET-specific markers, S. aureus bacteria and overall DNA structures. Nuclease activity was analyzed in sequential isogenic long persisting S. aureus isolates, as confirmed by whole genome sequencing, from an individual CF patient using a FRET-based nuclease activity assay. Additionally, some of these isolates were selected and analyzed by qRT-PCR to determine the expression of nuc1 and regulators of interest. NET-killing assays were performed with clinical S. aureus isolates to evaluate killing and bacterial survival depending on nuclease activity. To confirm the role of nuclease during NET-mediated killing, a clinical isolate with low nuclease activity was transformed with a nuclease expression vector (pCM28nuc). Furthermore, two sputa from an individual CF patient were subjected to RNA-sequence analysis to evaluate the activity of nuclease in vivo. In sputa, S. aureus was associated to extracellular DNA structures. Nuclease activity in clinical S. aureus isolates increased in a time-and phenotype-dependent manner. In the clinical isolates, the expression of nuc1 was inversely correlated to the activity of agr and was independent of saeS. NET-mediated killing was significantly higher in S. aureus isolates with low compared to isolates with high nuclease activity. Importantly, transformation of the clinical isolate with low nuclease activity with pCM28nuc conferred protection against NET-mediated killing confirming the beneficial role of nuclease for protection against NETs. Also, nuclease expression in in vivo sputa was high, which underlines the important role of nuclease within the highly inflamed CF airways. In conclusion, our data show that S. aureus adapts to the neutrophil-rich environment of CF airways with increasing nuclease expression most likely to avoid NET-killing during long-term persistence.

Factors Associated with Worse Lung Function in Cystic Fibrosis Patients with Persistent Staphylococcus aureus.

BACKGROUND: Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen in cystic fibrosis (CF). However, it is not clear which factors are associated with worse lung function in patients with persistent S. aureus airway cultures. Our main hypothesis was that patients with high S. aureus density in their respiratory specimens would more likely experience worsening of their lung disease than patients with low bacterial loads. METHODS: Therefore, we conducted an observational prospective longitudinal multi-center study and assessed the association between lung function and S. aureus bacterial density in respiratory samples, co-infection with other CF-pathogens, nasal S. aureus carriage, clinical status, antibiotic therapy, IL-6- and IgG-levels against S. aureus virulence factors. RESULTS: 195 patients from 17 centers were followed; each patient had an average of 7 visits. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and generalized linear mixed models. Our main hypothesis was only supported for patients providing throat specimens indicating that patients with higher density experienced a steeper lung function decline (p<0.001). Patients with exacerbations (n = 60), S. aureus small-colony variants (SCVs, n = 84) and co-infection with Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (n = 44) had worse lung function (p = 0.0068; p = 0.0011; p = 0.0103). Patients with SCVs were older (p = 0.0066) and more often treated with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (p = 0.0078). IL-6 levels positively correlated with decreased lung function (p<0.001), S. aureus density in sputa (p = 0.0016), SCVs (p = 0.0209), exacerbations (p = 0.0041) and co-infections with S. maltophilia (p = 0.0195) or A. fumigatus (p = 0.0496). CONCLUSIONS: In CF-patients with chronic S. aureus cultures, independent risk factors for worse lung function are high bacterial density in throat cultures, exacerbations, elevated IL-6 levels, presence of S. aureus SCVs and co-infection with S. maltophilia. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00669760.

Increased Prevalence and Resistance of Important Pathogens Recovered from Respiratory Specimens of Cystic Fibrosis Patients During a Decade.

BACKGROUND: The study objective was to identify changes of prevalence and resistance of important pathogens in specimens of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients within a decade. METHODS: Samples of 94 patients, who attended 2 CF centers from 2001 to 2011 were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Staphylococcus aureus was the most prevalent organism (74.5% in 2011) with an increase of methicillin-resistant S. aureus in patients (0% vs. 9.6%, n = 9). Resistance of S. aureus to gentamicin decreased (41.8% vs. 21%; P < 0.001), whereas resistance to rifampicin and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (P < 0.05) increased significantly with a trend to increased resistance to clindamycin and erythromycin (P = 0.063). Methicillin-resistant S. aureus isolates belonged to 6 spa types (t003, t008, t011, t034, t045, t548). There was a significant increase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa prevalence (63.8% in 2011 vs. 46.8% in 2001, P = 0.019). Resistance of P. aeruginosa increased significantly to imipenem, gentamicin, amikacin, tobramycin, ciprofloxacin and fosfomycin, whereas resistance to piperacillin-tazobactam, meropenem and aztreonam decreased. Significantly fewer Stenotrophomonas maltophilia isolates were susceptible to all the analyzed antibiotics (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, ciprofloxacin and colistin) in 2011 compared with 2001 (13.5% vs. 42.1%; P = 0.023), whereas the resistance to colistin increased significantly (11.1% vs. 62.2%; P < 0.001). Burkholderia cepacia complex and nontuberculous mycobacteria were not detected in 2001 but in 2011 in 7.4% (n = 9) and 7.4% (n = 9) of patients, respectively. B. cepacia complex isolates belonged to 8 multilocus sequence types. CONCLUSIONS: Our retrospective analysis revealed an increase of important CF-related pathogens, the emergence of new pathogens and a substantial increase of multidrug-resistant CF-specific isolates. Our findings are of importance to clinicians for the alertness of local epidemiology, which may be useful for prevention and treatment strategies.

Disorders of pubertal development.

BACKGROUND: Puberty is an extremely important phase in the physical and psychosocial development of the adolescent. METHODS: Selective literature review. RESULTS: The diagnosis of abnormal puberty requires thorough knowledge of normal pubertal development and of the variations of normal puberty as well as its pathology. Variations of normal pubertal development can be expected, by definition, to occur at a frequency of roughly 3%. A detailed history is the first step in the diagnostic evaluation of a normal variant or an abnormal puberty. Further evaluation includes laboratory testing (estradiol, testosterone, and the results of a GnRH test, among others) and imaging studies (x-ray of the left hand and wrist, ultrasonography of the gonads, magnetic resonance imaging). Treatment is directed at both the acute and the long-term consequences of precocious, markedly delayed, or absent pubertal development. CONCLUSIONS: Disorders of pubertal development should be recognized early, correctly diagnosed by a pediatric endocrinologist, and appropriately treated.

Emergence of respiratory Streptococcus agalactiae isolates in cystic fibrosis patients.

Streptococcus agalactiae is a well-known pathogen for neonates and immunocompromized adults. Beyond the neonatal period, S. agalactiae is rarely found in the respiratory tract. During 2002-2008 we noticed S. agalactiae in respiratory secretions of 30/185 (16%) of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. The median age of these patients was 3-6 years older than the median age CF patients not harboring S. agalactiae. To analyze, if the S. agalactiae isolates from CF patients were clonal, further characterization of the strains was achieved by capsular serotyping, surface protein determination and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). We found a variety of sequence types (ST) among the isolates, which did not substantially differ from the MLST patterns of colonizing strains from Germany. However serotype III, which is often seen in colonizing strains and invasive infections was rare among CF patients. The emergence of S. agalactiae in the respiratory tract of CF patients may represent the adaptation to a novel host environment, supported by the altered surfactant composition in older CF patients.

Determination of CFTR densities in erythrocyte plasma membranes using recognition imaging.

CFTR (cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator) is a cAMP-regulated chloride (Cl(-)) channel that plays an important role in salt and fluid movement across epithelia. Cystic fibrosis (CF), the most common genetic disease among Caucasians, is caused by mutations in the gene encoding CFTR. The most predominant mutation, F508del, disturbs CFTR protein trafficking, resulting in a reduced number of CFTR in the plasma membrane. Recent studies indicate that CFTR is not only found in epithelia but also in human erythrocytes. Although considerable attempts have been made to quantify CFTR in cells, conclusions on numbers of CFTR molecules localized in the plasma membrane have been drawn indirectly. AFM has the power to provide the needed information, since both sub-molecular spatial resolution and direct protein recognition via antibody-antigen interaction can be observed. We performed a quantification study of the CFTR copies in erythrocyte membranes at the single molecule level, and compared the difference between healthy donors and CF patients. We detected that the number of CFTR molecules is reduced by 70% in erythrocytes of cystic fibrosis patients.

Nasal Staphylococcus aureus carriage is not a risk factor for lower-airway infection in young cystic fibrosis patients.

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the first pathogens which often persistently infect the airways of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Nasal S. aureus carriage is a risk factor for S. aureus infections in non-CF patients. Topical treatment strategies successfully eradicate nasal S. aureus carriage, thereby decreasing S. aureus infection. A prospective longitudinal multicenter study was conducted to assess whether nasal carriage represents a risk factor for S. aureus colonization of the oropharynx in young CF patients. Cross-sectional analysis revealed a significantly higher prevalence of S. aureus-positive nasal (28/80 [35%] versus 20/109 [18%]; P < 0.01) and oropharyngeal (35/80 [44%] versus 20/109 [18%]; P < 0.001) cultures in children with CF compared to a control group. The first site of S. aureus detection was the nose in 6 patients and the oropharynx in 14 patients, respectively. Longitudinal analysis demonstrated a significantly higher S. aureus prevalence (61/62 [98%] versus 47/62 [76%]; P < 0.001) and persistence (46/62 [74%] versus 31/62 [50%]; P < 0.01) in the oropharynx than in the nose. In CF patients, the oropharynx, and not the nose, was the predominant site of S. aureus infection and persistence. Hence, it is unlikely that CF patients will benefit from topical treatment strategies to eradicate nasal carriage.

Physiological concept for a blood based CFTR test.

We tested the hypothesis that the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) could be involved in the volume regulation of human red blood cells (RBC). Experiments were based on two gadolinium (Gd(3+)) sensitive mechanisms, i.e. inhibition of ATP release (thetaATP(i)) and membrane destabilization. RBC of either cystic fibrosis (CF) patients or healthy donors (non-CF) were exposed to KCl buffer containing Gd(3+). A significantly larger quantity of non-CF RBC (2.55 %) hemolyzed as compared to CF RBC (0.89 %). It was found that both of the Gd(3+) mechanisms simultaneously are needed to achieve hemolysis, since either overriding thetaATP(i) by exogenous ATP addition prevented Gd(3+) induced hemolysis, or mimicking thetaATP(i) by apyrase in absence of Gd(3+) could not trigger hemolysis. Additionally, ion driven volume uptake was found to be a prerequisite for Gd3+ induced hemolysis as chloride and potassium channel blockers reduced the Gd(3+) response. The results show that in non-CF RBC Gd(3+) exerts its dual effect leading to hemolysis. On the contrary, in CF RBC, lacking CFTR dependent ATP release, the sole Gd(3+) effect of membrane destabilization is not sufficient to induce hemolysis similar to non-CF. This concept could form the basis of a novel method suitable for testing CFTR function in a blood sample.

Pharmacology of all-trans-retinoic acid in children with acute promyelocytic leukemia.

BACKGROUND: Due to severe side effects in virtually all children treated with a standard dose of 45 mg/m(2)/day all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) the AML-BFM study group reduced the dosage to 25 mg/m(2)/day. For the lack of data on the use of ATRA at this dosage in children with APL, the study group further decided to evaluate the pharmacokinetics and metabolism of ATRA in children. PROCEDURE: Twenty-three pharmacokinetic and metabolic profiles of ATRA were studied in 14 children (aged 0.9-18.4 years) with APL. Eleven plasma samples were collected over a period of 8 hr and analyzed for ATRA and its metabolites by high-performance liquid chromatography. RESULTS: Peak plasma concentrations of ATRA were characterized by wide interpatient variability (range: 28.6-513.0 nM). Compared to adults the same metabolic pathways were observed in children. Even though peak plasma concentrations were in the lower range of those considered effective in vitro, ATRA side effects, notably neurotoxicity, still required dose reduction, treatment break, or drug withdrawal in eight patients. In this small number of patients, neurotoxicity could not be related to age or any specific level of ATRA or metabolites in the plasma. Plasma concentrations of vitamin A, however, were significantly higher in those patients, who developed signs of neurotoxicity (P = 0.03, Mann-Whitney Rank Sum test). CONCLUSIONS: Considering the low plasma concentrations and the persistence of toxicity in spite of dose reduction intermittent dosing schedules might be considered as an alternative to further dose reduction of ATRA in the treatment of APL especially in children, who might be at risk of ATRA-induced neurotoxicity.