Haemophagocytic syndrome in a liver transplant patient during treatment with Telaprevir
Journal Title: Annals of Hepatology - Year 2013, Vol 12, Issue 6
Abstract
Haemophagocytic syndrome (HS) is a rare disease that is often fatal despite treatment. HS is characterized by fevers, lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, cytopenias and hyperferritinaemia due to deregulated activation and proliferation of macrophages, leading to uncontrolled phagocytosis of platelets, erythrocytes, lymphocytes, and their hematopoietic precursors throughout the reticuloendothelial system. Mycobacterium tuberculosis-associated HS is a rare and underdiagnosed association with only 39 cases reported. We describe a case of HS associated with disseminated Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the setting of post-liver transplantation anti-hepatitis C therapy with pegylated interferon (pegIFN), ribavirin (RBV) and telaprevir (TVR). Despite the delay in the etiologic diagnosis, the patient was treated properly with corticosteroids, cyclosporine and tuberculostatic agents. It is unknown whether telaprevir, a drug that only recently has been started off-label in liver transplant recipients, may have contributed to the development of the HS. Unfortunately, as in many reported cases of HS, the outcome was unfavourable resulting in the death of the patient.
Authors and Affiliations
Beatriz Rodríguez-Medina, Marino Blanes, Carmen Vinaixa, Victoria Aguilera, Ángel Rubín, Martín Prieto, Marina Berenguer
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP78348
- DOI -
- Views 143
- Downloads 0
The prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in the Americas
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an alarming public health problem. The disease is one of the main causes of chronic liver disease worldwide and is directly linked to the increased prevalence of obesity and ty...
Congenital Shunts of the Portal Venous System: Case-series of Uncommon Shunts
Background and aims. Congenital shunts of the portal venous system are rare entities that can present in children with clinical heterogeneity. To evaluate the clinical course of children with uncommon shunts presenting t...
Does the persistently normal aminotransferase levels in hepatitis C still have relevance?
Liver stiffness assessed by transient elastography in patients with β thalassaemia major
Rationale for the study. This cross-sectional multicenter study was conducted to investigate any difference in liver stiffness measurements (LSM), evaluated by transient elastography, between patients affected by β thal...
Hepatitis E virus serum antibodies and RNA prevalence in patients evaluated for heart and kidney transplantation
Background. Acute hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection in solid organ transplant recipients is rare, but cancause severe hepatic and extrahepatic complications. We sought to identify the pretransplant prevalenceof HEV infec...