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Background: Coagulopathy in isolated traumatic brain injury (TBI) is well-known, and studies have found an association between coagulopathy and unfavourable outcomes. This study was conducted to determine the incidence and causes of coagulopathy in patients with TBI undergoing craniotomy and its effect on post-operative outcome. Materials and Methods: The data collected was demographics, computed tomography diagnosis, post-resuscitation Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score, pre- and post-operative platelet count, liver function tests, intraoperative blood loss and transfusion, fluids infused and incidence of redo surgery. Point of care (Coaguchek XS) monitor was used to obtain prothrombin time and international normalised ratio (INR) at 24 h and 72 h of injury. Coagulopathy was defined as INR ≥1.3 and thrombocytopenia as platelet count ≤100,000/mcL. Outcome measures assessed were the length of hospital stay, GCS at discharge and in-hospital mortality. Results: In 166 patients, the average pre-operative GCS was 8.8 ± 3.6. The incidence of coagulopathy was 42.8% and increased to 55.6% on the 3rd day, and thrombocytopenia from 3.5% in the first 24 h increased to 14.7% at 72 h. Patients with coagulopathy had lower pre-operative admission GCS (median 7 vs. 9, P = 0.03), greater intraoperative blood loss and received more intravenous fluids. There was no difference in the incidence of post-operative haematomas, length of hospital stay and GCS at discharge or mortality. Conclusion: In patients with TBI, the incidence of coagulopathy increased at the end of 72 h. In this study, there was no difference in outcomes in patients who underwent craniotomy with deranged coagulation.

Background Immunotherapy agents show anti-cancer activity in several solid cancers. Efficacy in non-melanoma solid tumours for non-approved indications is unknown. Aim To evaluate patient and disease characteristics, rate and duration of response, and toxicity of self-funded pembrolizumab in patients with non-melanoma solid cancers. Method Retrospective review describing outcomes and toxicity of self-funded pembrolizumab in patients with non-melanoma solid cancers treated at Chris O'Brien Lifehouse. Results From April 2015 to December 2015, 21 patients received or were planned to receive self-funded pembrolizumab. The median age was 50 years (16-76), 28 and 10% had an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 2, and 3-4 respectively. Sixty-two percent received at least two to four lines of prior drug treatment. Median follow-up was 3.0 months (range, 0.4-9.6). Fourteen (67%) patients requested pembrolizumab. Pembrolizumab was clinician offered for 7 (33%) patients. Patients who requested pembrolizumab had worse outcomes. Three patients died before receiving pembrolizumab. Of the 18 patients that received at least one dose, a partial response was observed in 3 (17%). Progressive disease occurred in 83%. Four patients received only one cycle of pembrolizumab and died after a median of 27 days (range 13-43). Immune-related adverse events of any grade occurred in 33%. No grade 3-4 events were observed. Conclusion Pembrolizumab was well tolerated. Meaningful responses were observed in 17% of treated patients. Response continues after 5-6.5 months follow-up in 11% and >8 months of follow-up for the other responding patient. Financial impact to the patient can be substantial. Outcomes for 33% were poor with three patients dying prior to receiving therapy and four dying within weeks of receiving one dose. This highlights issues regarding the careful selection of patients, futility of anti-cancer therapy at the end-of-life and patients' perceived benefit of receiving this therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fibrinogen is the primary substrate of coagulation. Fibrinogen depletion occurs in acute traumatic coagulopathy and is associated with unfavorable outcomes. Fibrinogen levels also decrease following traumatic brain injury (TBI) due to hypothermia, acidosis, and hypoperfusion leading to hyperfibrinolysis. This study was conducted to identify risk factors and the incidence of hypofibrinogenemia following TBI and also its effect on perioperative complications and postoperative outcome. A total of 51 adult patients with TBI were included in the study, and 33.3% of them had hypofibrinogenemia. Patients with low fibrinogen levels had lower preoperative Glasgow Coma Score (GCS), had associated derangement of international normalized ratio (INR), received more blood transfusions, and had lower discharge GCS compared with those with normal fibrinogen levels. Patients with hypofibrinogenemia had higher incidence of repeat surgery. In conclusion, hypofibrinogenemia occurs commonly after TBI and is associated with poor outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Glucocorticoids such as prednisolone and dexamethasone are critical drugs used in multi-agent chemotherapy protocols used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and response to glucocorticoids is highly predictive of outcome. The NOD/SCID xenograft mouse model of ALL is a clinically relevant model in which the mice develop a systemic leukemia which retains the fundamental biological characteristics of the original disease. Here we report a study evaluating the NOD/SCID xenograft mouse model to investigate glucocorticoid-induced gene expression. Cells from a glucocorticoid-sensitive xenograft derived from a child with B-cell precursor ALL were inoculated into NOD/SCID mice. When highly engrafted the mice were randomized into groups of 4 to receive dexamethasone 15 mg/kg by intraperitoneal injection or vehicle control. Leukemia cells were harvested from mice spleens at 0, 8, 24 or 48 hours thereafter, and gene expression analyzed on Illumina WG-6_V3 chips, comparing all groups to time 0 hours. Results The 8 hour dexamethasone-treated timepoint had the highest number of significantly differentially expressed genes, with fewer observed at the 24 and 48 hour timepoints, and with minimal changes seen across the time-matched controls. When compared to publicly available datasets of glucocorticoid-induced gene expression from an in vitro cell line study and from an in vivo study of patients with ALL, at the level of pathways, expression changes in the 8 hour xenograft samples showed a similar response to patients treated with glucocorticoids. Replicate analysis revealed that at the 8 hour timepoint, a dataset with high signal and differential expression, using data from 3 replicates instead of 4 resulted in excellent recovery scores of > 0.9. However at other timepoints with less signal very poor recovery scores were obtained with 3 replicates. Conclusions The NOD/SCID xenograft mouse model provides a reproducible experimental system in which to investigate clinically-relevant mechanisms of drug-induced gene regulation in ALL; the 8 hour timepoint provides the highest number of significantly differentially expressed genes; time-matched controls are redundant and excellent recovery scores can be obtained with 3 replicates.