European journal of internal medicine
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Eur. J. Intern. Med. · Mar 2022
Multicenter StudyInterstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features: Evaluation of connective tissue disease incidence during follow-up.
Among interstitial pneumonia with autoimmune features (IPAF) patients, identifying those at risk to develop a connective tissue disease (CTD) during the disease course is a key issue. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of definite CTD diagnosis in IPAF patients during follow-up. ⋯ We found that a significant proportion of IPAF patients had associated CTD diagnosis during follow-up. Prospective studies are needed to confirm baseline predictive factors of CTD occurrence in IPAF patients.
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Eur. J. Intern. Med. · Mar 2022
Multicenter StudyReal-life data on the impact of successful downstaging in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma: A Dutch Multicenter Study.
Patients with Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer intermediate stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) theoretically are an excellent group to consider downstaging using locoregional therapy (LRT) since they do not have extrahepatic spread or vascular invasion. Once successful, this can change the treatment strategy from palliative to curative intention. Although downstaging therapy is suggested in guidelines, it is still not widely accepted. ⋯ Cox regression analysis showed that a lower MELD score, an AFP value <100 ng/ml, successful downstaging and liver transplantation (all ≤p = 0.01) were positively associated to overall survival. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that LRT is not routinely offered to intermediate stage HCC patients in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, we showed that patients with intermediate stage HCC who are successfully downstaged have a survival benefit compared to those who were not.