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  • Buckley Downs posted an update 1 week ago

    Multiple sclerosis is still a severe disease potentially associated with a short- or long-term disability in young adults. Since a few years therapeutic progresses are considerable. New drugs and new therapy rationale considerably improved our knowledge and patient’s care. Early treatment is a key within dedicated specialized and multidisciplinary units. Clinical and neuroradiological no evidence of disease activity (NEDA) is a goal, which is more often reached. Patient’s evolution and follow-up is completely changed in recent years with more efficacy.Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease affecting around 2-3 % of the population. The disease spectrum evolves from to the knees and elbows limited disease to erythrodermic psoriasis. The impact on the quality of life, the pruritus, the pain from palmo-plantar disease, arthropathic psoriasis and the comorbidities are the major complaints of the patients. The treatment relies on topical treatments with dermocorticosteroids with or without vitamin D derivatives, UVA or UVB phototherapy, conventional treatments including methotrexate, ciclosporin and acitretin, and, since around 15 years, biological treatments. The biological treatments for moderate to severe psoriasis progressed in a spectacular way with an improvement of clinical results and an amelioration of the safety profile at every step. This article discusses these developments from the TNF? antagonists, including etanercept, adalimumab and infliximab to the newly arrivals, the anti-IL17 and anti-IL23 antagonists, the anti-PDE-4 antagonists and the JAK inhibitors.The development of new drugs is a significant activity in a university hospital that favors access to therapeutic novelties to patients. Rheumatology, whose drug armamentarium was poor in the 1980s, has benefited from the huge progresses of immunology in the 1980-1990s, allowing a therapeutic revolution in whom the academic hospital of Liège (CHU Liège) has been strongly implicated. First protocols with anti-TNF-? monoclonal antibodies have been applied in 1997. Sixty-one protocols have been initiated in rheumatoid arthritis, 12 in ankylosing spondylitis, 10 in psoriatic arthritis, 9 in systemic erythematosus lupus, 3 in giant cell arteritis, 1 in polymyalgia rheumatica, 5 in osteoarthritis and 4 in osteoporosis. Potential and pitfalls will be discussed disease by disease and also by drug categories. Bay 11-7085 price The balance remains globally positive, but remission is far from be reached.New antiviral therapies, available in Belgium since 2015, have revolutionized the treatment of hepatitis C. A definitive eradication of the virus can now be obtained in nearly all treated patients whatever the viral genotype or the fibrosis stage. Moreover, due to the excellent security profile of these therapies, all the patients can have access to a therapy whatever their concomitant pathologies. The therapeutic victory against the virus being acquired, efforts are turning towards the screening of the patients unaware of their infection, in order to obtain a near eradication of the virus in 2030.Malaria is a worldwide public health problem. In Europe, data show an increasing trend of imported cases in the last ten years. Following an alarming observation reporting resistance to anti-malarial drugs, new effective treatments have been developed in early 21st century. These are artemisinin and its derivatives. Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) are now recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) since 2006 as the first-line treatment for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria. However, resistance phenomena to these new drugs have been described in South-East Asia since 2009. It is thus necessary to use them properly and to monitor their use to preserve their effectiveness in the future.In order to end the AIDS pandemic, new infections must be avoided. This prevention can be divided into four axes depending on the risk of exposure to the HIV virus. Over the past decade, new prevention strategies supported by various studies have emerged. These are effective when they are used in combination. Some are not without risk or even controversial according to some authors.Asthma is a chronic heterogeneous airway disease. There are different asthma inflammatory phenotypes with various responses to treatment and different disease severities. When asthma requires chronic systemic corticosteroids or hospitalizations despite maximal inhaled therapies in asthmatic patients in whom comorbidities have been managed and who are considered as compliant, the pulmonologist may propose biological treatment to reduce exacerbations and the dose of systemic corticosteroids. During the last ten years, the number of biologics for the management of type-2 severe asthma has increased. Anti-IgE monoclonal antibodies (omalizumab) are available for more than ten years and recommended in severe allergic asthma. New biologics are now available to block IL-5 (mepolizumab, reslizumab) or its receptor (benralizumab). These treatments allow a reduction of exacerbations and of the dose of systemic corticosteroids, an improvement in asthma control, in asthma quality of life and for some of them, an increase in lung function. New biologics will soon be available in Belgium for the management of severe asthma. In addition to the improvement of asthma control in severe asthma, biological treatments have improved the understanding of the mechanisms leading to severe asthma.Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare disease, characterized by a progressive increase in pulmonary arterial pressure. The therapeutic management of PAH patients has evolved significantly over the past decades following the appearance of new specific therapies, but also the performance of multiple clinical studies in an otherwise rare pathology. As a result, the care is very well codified and makes it possible to treat all patients at best. To date, we can cite four therapeutic families endothelin receptor antagonists (ERA), drugs that interfere with the cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) pathway such as phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE5i) or the stimulator of soluble guanylate cyclase, prostacyclin analogues, and, finally, calcium antagonists. The therapeutic approach, formerly sequential, has proven to be insufficient in favor of an aggressive and rapidly progressive upfront therapeutic approach, making it possible to greatly improve the morbidity and mortality of patients. In this context, early management remains the most appropriate attitude and justifies recourse, from the first symptoms, to a competence center.Chronic kidney disease (CKD) impairs the quality of life and increases the risk for cardiovascular morbimortality. Intensive research is conducted in order to slow down CKD development and progression. During the past decade, a better understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms of glomerular diseases has highlighted the benefits of rituximab. Progresses have also been made in the understanding of the mechanisms of autosomal polycystic kidney disease, the most frequent inherited kidney disease. These observations led to the discovery and validation of tolvaptan, a blocker of the V2 receptor of the antidiuretic hormone as an innovative treatment. Type 2 diabetic disease is the leading cause worldwide of endstage kidney disease and dialysis. The development of new drugs, such as the gliflozins (inhibiting the sodium glucose reabsorption in the proximal tubule), has contributed to an improvement in the management of the cardiovascular and renal risks especially reducing congestive heart failure rate. Another important progress in nephrology since the beginning of the new century concerns a more precise estimation of the kidney function, which allows to better evaluate the slope of CKD progression and test the influence of different therapeutic approaches aiming at correcting anemia, hyperkalemia, metabolic acidosis and disturbances of calcium and phosphate. The present review summarizes all of these major advances in the field of CKD diagnosis and treatment, and envisions the future of nephrology for the next decade.Hypertension remains one of the most important cardiovascular risk factors. In spite of many efforts for its management, the control of high blood pressure remains insufficient. In the last decade, no new antihypertensive drug was released. The main effort to improve blood pressure control was put on the validation of the hypertensive status, the stimulation of home blood pressure measurement and the therapeutic education of the patients. The releasing in 2018 of new guidelines, which are clear and more simple, would help more efficiently fight against hypertension, the still present silent killer. In Europe, the usual blood pressure target has been kept, i.e.a lowering of blood pressure below 140/90 mmHg in all fit patients whatever their age. Lower target could be proposed according to the patient tolerance. Treatment is decided according to cardiovascular risk evaluation. Quickly a combination of two antihypertensive agents in a single pill is proposed to improve efficacy of the treatment. We also need the help of the family, nurses and pharmacists to increase the chance of a better blood pressure control, which is necessary to get an optimal cardiovascular protection.Over the last hundred years, the treatment of hemophilia has evolved considerably. To date, its principle is still to prevent the occurrence of hemorrhages by regular intravenous injections of factor VIII or IX concentrate. It allows to reach a life expectancy similar to the general population. The quality of life is constantly improving despite the constraint imposed by the modality and frequency of injections. The main complication remains the development of antibodies that inhibit the administered factors. Concentrates of long-acting factors are now available allowing to limit for example the frequency of injections. A bispecific monoclonal antibody reproducing the action of factor VIII and injectable subcutaneously has recently become available to hemophilia A patients, with the advantage of being effective even in the presence of inhibitors. Other non-substitute products are being studied offering interesting leads. Finally, gene therapy shows promising results, giving hope for access to this therapeutic option in a relatively near future. These advances are, however, a challenge for clinical laboratories, which must adapt their measurement techniques to ensure optimal monitoring. The future is on its way for hemophilia. Treatment remains expensive but it is worth the price.The radiological treatment of post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS), complicating venous obstruction of the lower limbs is described. Results obtained by the evolving techniques are discussed.In the past decade atrial fibrillation (AF) and venous thromboembolic disease (VTE) treatment have been revolutionized by direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs). Compared to vitamin K antagonists, DOACs have interesting advantages standardized dosages (no need for monitoring), fast action, short half-life, (no food interaction and lower risk of intracranial bleeding). In addition to VTE and AF, DOACs have specific indications prevention of postorthopedic surgery VTE and more recently, prevention of cardiovascular events in patients with stable coronaropathy and/or peripheral artery disease. Nevertheless, DOACs must be handled with care according to dosage regimens, contra-indications, drug-drug interactions. Other anticoagulants are in the pipeline. What will their indications be ? Future will tell us.