Clinical experience with ethynodiol diacetate 0.5 mg daily as an oral contraceptive

Femulen, a progestogen only oral contraceptive (ethynodiol diacetate 0.5mg), was evaluated for its contraceptive efficacy and safety in 425 women aged between 16 and 47 years. This was a multicentre open study carried out in General Practice and Family Planning clinics. Five pregnancies were reported, three of which were a result of patient failure. The net pregnancy rate at one year for method failure was 0.5%. No ectopic pregnancy was reported. The median length of the menstrual period was between four and five days and the average length of the non-bleeding interval remained between 24 and 25 days throughout the study. Blood pressure on the whole remained within normal limits. However, there was a small decrease in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure which did not reach significant levels. Body weight was unaltered and no abnormality was found in cervical smears. Femulen was shown to be an effective and acceptable contraceptive in women of varying ages.     

Intravenous digital subtraction renal angiography: use in screening for renovascular hypertension

Intravenous digital subtraction renal angiography (DSRA) has been compared with conventional angiography only in small, selected series of hypertensive patients. The authors prospectively examined with intravenous DSRA 94 patients at increased risk for renovascular hypertension and compared these studies with conventional angiography. A stenosis of at least one main renal artery was identified with intravenous DSRA in 22 patients and confirmed in 20 patients. No significant stenoses were seen with conventional angiography in any of the 64 patients in whom lesions were not seen with intravenous DSRA. Since inadequate DSRA studies were considered positive for renal artery stenosis, the sensitivity of intravenous DSRA was 100% (25 of 25); specificity, 93% (64 of 69); positive predictive value, 83% (25 of 30); and negative predictive value, 100% (64 of 64). The authors conclude that intravenous DSRA is a sensitive test for identifying stenosis of the main renal arteries and is appropriate to use as a screening test among patients at increased risk for renovascular hypertension.     

Causes of jaundice during hepatic artery infusion chemotherapy

Jaundice develops in many patients with liver metastases from colorectal adenocarcinoma during hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC). The usual cause is thought to be hepatotoxicity from the chemotherapeutic agent or biliary obstruction from progressive neoplastic disease. The authors evaluated the abdominal computed tomography and ultrasound examinations performed on 49 patients who were jaundiced during long-term HAIC. In only one patient was diffuse intrahepatic biliary dilatation caused by an obstructing mass in the porta. Two patients had metastatic hepatic lesions causing focal biliary obstruction. Intrahepatic dilatation without an obstructing mass occurred in 20 patients. Percutaneous or endoscopic cholangiograms were commonly interpreted prospectively as showing extrinsic compression by metastases, but no mass was confirmed on imaging studies. Seven patients had focal intrahepatic ductal dilatation from stricture without an associated mass. The remaining 19 patients had normal-caliber ducts; their jaundice was caused by chemical hepatitis. This series suggests that the most common causes of jaundice in these patients are chemical hepatitis and common bile duct stricture, complications of intraarterial chemotherapy, rather than neoplastic obstruction. Stricture formation may be confused with extrinsic compression on direct cholangiograms.     

Translational development of splice-modifying antisense oligomers

Introduction: Antisense nucleic acid analogues can interact with pre-mRNA motifs and influence exon or splice site selection and thereby alter gene expression. Design of antisense molecules to target specific motifs can result in either exon exclusion or exon inclusion during splicing. Novel drugs exploiting the antisense concept are targeting rare, life-limiting diseases; however, the potential exists to treat a wide range of conditions by antisense-mediated splice intervention.

Areas covered: In this review, the authors discuss the clinical translation of novel molecular therapeutics to address the fatal neuromuscular disorders Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy. The review also highlights difficulties posed by issues pertaining to restricted participant numbers, variable phenotype and disease progression, and the identification and validation of study endpoints.

Expert opinion: Translation of novel therapeutics for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy has been greatly advanced by multidisciplinary research, academic-industry partnerships and in particular, the engagement and support of the patient community. Sponsors, supporters and regulators are cooperating to deliver new drugs and identify and define meaningful outcome measures. Non-conventional and adaptive trial design could be particularly suited to clinical evaluation of novel therapeutics and strategies to treat serious, rare diseases that may be problematic to study using more conventional clinical trial structures.     

Alloimmunization to platelet-specific antigens on glycoproteins IIb- IIIa and Ib/IX in multiply transfused thrombocytopenic patients

The rate of alloimmunization to platelet-specific antigens associated with platelet glycoproteins (GPs) IIb-IIIa and Ib/IX was studied in 293 multiply transfused thrombocytopenic patients. Antibodies to platelet-specific antigens were measured with a solid-phase assay using platelet GP IIb-IIIa or Ib/IX as the antigenic targets. Nine patients were found to have antibodies to platelet GP IIb-IIIa, and no patients had antibodies to platelet GP Ib/IX. In six of these nine patients, the specificity of the antibody was shown by using GP IIb-IIIa from donors with different platelet-specific antigen phenotypes. In the remaining three patients with antibodies to platelet GP IIb-IIIa, no specificity could be identified. These patients had autoimmune thrombocytopenia in association with lymphoma. The alloimmunization rate to platelet-specific antigens associated with GP IIb-IIIa was 2 percent, whereas the rate of alloimmunization to HLA antigens was 23 percent. Of the patients alloimmunized to HLA antigens, 9 percent also had antibodies to platelet-specific antigens. A poor response to HLA-identical platelet transfusions was observed only in those patients with positive assays in the solid-phase test. These results suggest that the incidence of antibodies to platelet-specific antigens carried on GP IIb-IIIa is low. Platelet-specific antibodies may be found more frequently in patients alloimmunized to HLA antigens than in those not so alloimmunized.