Case presentation 2: Patient is a 47-year-old man with a 12-year history of chronic heart failure due to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. He now presents with New York Heart Association class IV symptoms that are refractory to medical therapy. At what point should we consider this patient for mechanical circulatory support? Mechanical circulatory support (MCS) is an important adjunct to the m...

Patients with idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) show persistent hypereosinophilia of unknown etiology that is associated with end-organ damage. Different treatments, including the use of corticosteroids and cytotoxics, have been investigated for HES with modest success. We report a young patient with HES who developed stroke and remained refractory to conventional therapy. Therapy wit...

Many patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) complain of chronic refractory cough. Chronic cough is a distressing and disabling symptom with a major impact on quality of life. During recent years, progress has been made in gaining insight into the pathogenesis of cough in IPF, which is most probably "multifactorial" and influenced by mechanical, biochemical and neurosensory changes, w...

Background: The etiology of urticaria is recognized only in a minority of cases. Allergies to a wide variety of agents have been suspected, as well as hyper reactivity to food additives or drugs. Recently, autoimmune reaction to immunoglobulin E (IgE) and later to high-affinity IgE receptors on mast cells has been reported. The aim of this study was to show elevated serum IgE levels in the pati...

Systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SOJIA) is the most common autoimmune auto inflammatory disease in childhood. A sizeable number of these patients run a recalcitrant disease course, resistant to the conventional line of management, ultimately resulting in permanent disability from joint destruction, local growth deformities or iatrogenic side effects. The new biological agents altho...

1. Wiestner A, Cho HJ, Asch AS, et al. Rituximab in the treatment of acquired factor VIII inhibitors. Blood. 2002;100:3426-3428. 2. Kain S, Copeland T-S, Leahy MF. Treatment of refractory autoimmune (acquired) haemophilia with anti-CD20 (rituximab) (letter). Brit J Haem. 2002;119: 578. 3. Stasi R, Pagano A, Stipa E, Amadori S. Rituximab chimeric anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody treatment for adult...

269 Refractory Chronic Urticaria Treated with Omalizumab Martinez Saenz, NP, Ramírez Del Pozo, ME, Lopez Tiro JJ, and Javier Gomez Vera, MD. Alergia e inmunologia clínica, Hospital Regional Lic. Adolfo Lopez Mateos, Distrito Federal, Mexico. Background: Chronic urticaria (CU) is a common disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of urticaria pruritic erythematous lesions, associated with ang...

purpose: to evaluate the effect of intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide injection for management of chronic refractory uveitis in terms of inflammation, visual acuity and macular thickness. methods: this interventional case series was conducted on uveitic eyes with no remission despite proper administration of periocular and/or systemic steroids. after systemic and rheumatologic evaluations and...

269 Refractory Chronic Urticaria Treated with Omalizumab Martinez Saenz, NP, Ramírez Del Pozo, ME, Lopez Tiro JJ, and Javier Gomez Vera, MD. Alergia e inmunologia clínica, Hospital Regional Lic. Adolfo Lopez Mateos, Distrito Federal, Mexico. Background: Chronic urticaria (CU) is a common disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of urticaria pruritic erythematous lesions, associated with ang...