Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), also known as Kala-Azar, is a disseminated protozoal infection caused principally by Leishmania donovani and Leishmania infantum (known as Leishmania chagasi in South America). The therapeutic options for VL are diverse and depend on different factors, such as the geographical area of the infection, development of resistance to habitual treatments, HIV co-infection,...

As the overall prevalence of asthma has escalated in the past decades, so has the population of patients with severe asthma. This condition is often difficult to manage due to the relative limitation of effective therapeutic options for the physician and the social and economic burden of the disease on the patient. Management should include an evaluation and elimination of modifiable risk facto...

Treatment for diabetic macular edema (DME) is continuously evolving with the advent of pharmacologic therapies. Focal laser photocoagulation remains the historical standard of care; however, a new wave of studies is rapidly emerging that shows the benefit of intravitreal antivascular endothelial growth factor medications and corticosteroids. The goal of this review is to compare the various tre...

Neurology® Clinical Practice 2010;75(Suppl 1):S22–S27 Care of the patient with multiple sclerosis (MS) is becoming increasingly complex, with new symptomatic therapies (e.g., dalfampridine), enhanced use of disease-modifying therapies that are potentially both more efficacious and more risky (e.g., natalizumab, rituximab) than “standard” immunomodulators, the advent of oral disease-modifying th...

Primary myelofibrosis is a Philadelphia-negative myeloproliferative neoplasm characterized by clonal myeloid expansion, followed by progressive fibrous connective tissue deposition in the bone marrow, resulting in bone marrow failure. Clonal evolution can also occur, with an increased risk of transformation to acute myeloid leukemia. In addition, disabling constitutional symptoms secondary to t...

Systemic sclerosis is a uncommon connective tissue disorder characterized by vascular damage, immune cell activation and fibrogenesis. Each of these components may respond to different therapies. Therefore, a combination strategy treating all three processes is more likely to control the disease than single agent therapy. Clinical trials have gone a long way towards defining the therapy of scle...

PANCREATIC PSEUDOCYST – ACTUAL THERAPEUTIC OPTIONS (Abstract): BACKGROUND: Pancreatic pseudocyst (PP) is one of the most frequent complications of acute and chronic pancreatitis; patients with these disorders often benefit from interventional treatment, or minimally invasive surgery. Progress of new minimally invasive interventional techniques (endoscopic internal drainage, external drainage gu...

Gastric and gastroesophageal adenocarcinomas are important health problems. A 2005 analysis1 of the worldwide incidence of and mortality from cancer showed that 934,000 cases of gastric cancer occurred in 2002 and that 700,000 patients die annually of this disease. The management of gastric cancer, like the management of most gastrointestinal cancers, is based on surgical resection of the prima...