PURPOSE To describe optical coherence tomography (OCT) characteristics of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) patients refractory to intravitreal anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) injections (ranibizumab, bevacizumab) and their responses to alternative anti-VEGF agents or photodynamic therapy (PDT). METHODS A retrospective review of 267 neovascular AMD patients tre...

Acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a major complication of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) and can be readily controlled by systemic high-dose steroids in many patients. However, patients whose GVHD is refractory to this therapy have a poor prognosis. Refractory patients have ongoing end-organ damage despite effective immunosuppression with second-line regimens, suggesting pat...

BACKGROUND Angina that is refractory to conventional medical therapy and revascularisation, remains challenging to manage and poses significant burden to patients. Elevated lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)] has emerged as an important independent cardiovascular risk factor and predictor of adverse outcomes in atherosclerotic disease. The prevalence of raised Lp(a) amongst patients with refractory angina h...

Refractory Celiac Disease is a rare condition associated with a substancial mortality rate. Both treatment and follow-up are still matter of debate. The case of a 54 year-old man with refractory celiac disease is presented who required treatment with both budesonide and azathioprine. A concise review of the clinical Management of Refractory Celiac Disease is then performed.

About 25-30% of patients with immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) are refractory to corticosteroids, splenectomy and other treatments. It has been suggested that interferon-alpha 2b (IFN-alpha 2b) may be useful in the treatment of chronic refractory ITP patients. We treated 9 chronic refractory ITP patients with IFN-alpha 2b: the results were poor.

SUMMARY Refractory celiac disease is an uncommon condition which might be associated to poor prognosis. It often treated with immunosuppressive medications, results. divided in type 1 and 2, the latter carrying a high risk for lymphoma mortality. A case of 41 year old female patient refractory 2 reported. She was oral budesonide six months, achieving histological remission.

Patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma have poor prognosis. A recent analysis of patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma who were refractory to both proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory drugs showed the median overall survival of 9 months only. Daratumumab is the first-in-class human monoclonal antibody against CD38 cells which was studied in phase I/II tria...

In adipocytes that have been deprived of growth hormone (GH) for at least 3 hr, GH elicits a transient insulin-like response that is followed by a period of refractoriness to further insulin-like stimulation. Exposure of adipocytes to GH in the first hour of a 3-hr incubation prevents the appearance of insulin-like sensitivity. Intracellular Ca2+ concentration [( Ca2+]i) was measured in individ...