Rare disease patients find independent health information seeking necessary due to the general lack of knowledge on rare diseases and inadequate information provision by health care professionals. The aim of this study is to describe distinctive aspects of health information behaviour of rare disease patients and specific challenges they face when seeking health information. A qualitative research approach was employed including semi-structured interviews that were analysed using thematic analysis. Fifteen respondents suffering from three different rare diseases participated in the study. Health information behaviour of rare disease patients is characterised by independent and continuous health information seeking and sharing. Connecting with other patients and getting realistic insight into the condition after diagnosis, advice for everyday life, comfort and hope and confirmation that their symptoms are ‘normal’ are of particular importance. Lack of specific advice for daily life, inaccessible new knowledge, lack of information about drugs and encountering severe health information are common challenges patients face due to insufficient support from health care professionals. Health information seeking and sharing are important aspects of rare disease patients’ everyday life. Challenges they face could be overcome in cooperation with patient support groups, health care professionals and health information professionals. For more information click here.
The team of the Institute for Rare Diseases has published a new scientific study. The aim of the study is to analyze the views of Bulgarian oncologists and hematologists regarding the value of innovative pharmaceutical treatments in their clinical area. Physicians were invited to review a life-prolonging scenario and to indicate what minimum improvement in median survival a new treatment would have to generate for them to recommend it over the standard of care. Respondents were also asked to state the highest cost at which they would recommend a new therapy that would improve patient’s health-related quality of life (HRQoL) but would have no impact on survival. In addition, physicians were asked whether they would consider different responses under certain circumstances. Responses were used to calculate incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) for each scenario. They found a high willingness-to-pay for innovative drugs in oncology and hematology. The wide range of responses observed, however, indirectly implies a lack of consensus on the use of explicit ICER thresholds in Bulgaria. For more information click here.
The European Union defines a disease as rare when it affects fewer than 5 per 10 000 persons, whereas the USA considers a condition rare if it affects fewer than 200 000 individuals. To date, however, there is no terminology to appropriately address these diseases as a category other than rare diseases, or in some instances orphan diseases when referring to conditions that lack the resources for treatment discovery. For more information click here.
Marfan’s syndrome (MFS) is a systemic disorder of connective tissue caused by mutations in the
extracellular matrix protein fibrillin-1. Orofacial characteristics may be useful in identification of the syndrome. Severe periodontitis is sometimes observed in MFS patients, but no in-depth information has been reported in Italian groups of growing subjects with MFS. The aim of this study was to analyze the periodontal condition on a group of growing subjects affected by MFS, in comparison with a typically developed control group. A group of 16 subjects with diagnosed MFS were recruited from the Centre for Rare Diseases for Marfan Syndrome and Related Disorders of Tor Vergata University Hospital. The Marfan Group (MG) was compared with a Control Group (CG) composed by 20 nonsyndromic subjects. The periodontal clinical parameters like Marginal Gingival Thickness (GT), Plaque Index (PI), Bleeding On Probing (BOP) and Modified Periodontal Screening and Recording (PSR) were assessed. Patients with Marfan syndrome reveal a higher presence of plaque and consequently a generalized inflammation in the oral cavity when compared with a control group. For more information click here.
The overall objective of this guideline is to provide the user with information on the laboratory diagnosis of inherited epidermolysis bullosa (EB) to improve outcomes. An accurate diagnosis and sub classification of EB enables early prognostication of the disease severity, decision making for patient management, informed genetic counselling of the patient and family and DNA based prenatal or preimplantation genetic diagnosis, long-term surveillance and management of possible complications, inclusion in clinical trials and precision medicine. The users of the guideline are dermatologists, neonatologists, paediatricians, geneticists and genetic counsellors, laboratory doctors and technicians, nurses and people living with EB and their families. The target group consists of patients with skin blistering or fragility, suspected of suffering from any type of EB. For more information click here.
“I have HAE. I’ll be stronger with your support” is the motto of this year’s international HAE day in Bulgaria, organized by the association HAE and celebrated on the 16th of May. All the members of the organization call for support the society, families and friends of the patients. As a support, the municipality of Plovdiv joined the event and have illuminated the building of the central municipality in blue. The event is organized together with the National Alliance of People with Rare Diseases, Mr. Georgi Tityukov (Mayor of Social Policy and Sport – Plovdiv), Institute for Rare Diseases, Profesional School of Food Technology and Technologies – Plovdiv and others.
Rosai-Dorfman disease (RDD) with isolated central nervous system (CNS) involvement is an extremely rare disease. Most RDD of the CNS present as dural-based mass mimicking meningioma and other common lesions, which makes preoperative accurate diagnosis of great difficulty. We searched the pathology database in our hospital and 3 cases of RDD with isolated CNS involvement were finally included in our study. Radiological and clinical findings of these three cases were retrospectively analyzed. The lesions of 2 cases were dura-based against the cerebral convexity, presenting as a sheet-shaped thickened dura mater, another case was located just across the cerebral falx, the dural display in the center was intact. The 3 cases showed low signal intensity on T2-weighted image, obviously enhanced, significantly surrounding edema and finger-like protuberance but no invasion of the brain parenchyma or no sign of hyperplasia or sclerosis of the surrounding cranial bones. In conclusion, when we come across a disease that mimicking meningioma, especially when it manifests as the above radiological features, we should considered it might be a kind of proliferative disease of the meninges, such as RDD. For more information click here.
Individuals with urea cycle disorders (UCDs) often present with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The major aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions on cognitive outcomes in UCDs..The mean cognitive standard deviation score (cSDS) was lower in symptomatic than in asymptomatic individuals with UCDs. In ornithine transcarbamylase and argininosuccinate synthetase 1 deficiencies, we did not find evidence that monoscavenger therapy with sodium or glycerol phenylbutyrate was superior to sodium benzoate in providing cognitive protection. Early liver transplantation appears to be beneficial for UCDs. It is noteworthy that individuals with argininosuccinate synthetase 1 and argininosuccinate lyase deficiencies identified by newborn screening had better neurocognitive outcomes than those diagnosed after the manifestation of first symptoms. Cognitive function is related to interventional and non-interventional variables. Early detection by newborn screening and early liver transplantation appear to offer greater cognitive protection, but none of the currently used nitrogen scavengers was superior with regard to long-term neurocognitive outcome. For more information click here.
There are approximately 7 000 rare diseases affecting 25-30 million Americans, with 80% estimated to have a genetic basis. This presents a challenge for genetics practitioners to determine appropriate testing, make accurate diagnoses, and conduct up-to-date patient management. Exome sequencing (ES) is a comprehensive diagnostic approach, but only 25%-41% of the patients receive a molecular diagnosis. The remaining three-fifths to three-quarters of patients undergoing ES remain undiagnosed. The Stanford Center for Undiagnosed Diseases (CUD), a clinical site of the Undiagnosed Diseases Network, evaluates patients with undiagnosed and rare diseases using a combination of methods including ES. Frequently these patients have non-diagnostic ES results, but strategic follow-up techniques identify diagnoses in a subset. We present techniques used at the CUD that can be adopted by genetics providers in clinical follow-up of cases where ES is non-diagnostic. Solved case examples illustrate different types of non-diagnostic results and the additional techniques that led to a diagnosis. Frequent approaches include segregation analysis, data reanalysis, genome sequencing, additional variant identification, careful phenotype-disease correlation, confirmatory testing, and case matching. We also discuss prioritization of cases for additional analyses. For more information read the full article here.
Hereditary angioedema due to C1-INH deficiency (C1-INH-HAE) is a rare disease with unpredictable, self-limiting and localized swelling episodes involving the cutaneous and subcutaneous tissues. In the last decade, the spectrum of the possibilities to control the disease has considerably changed with the development of biologic therapies making necessary a careful evaluation of the differences among current and emerging treatments to properly optimize the management of patients. This review serves to summarize the literature regarding the use of biologics for the treatment of C1-INH-HAE. Medications already available on the market and new drugs in different phases of development are addressed. Тhe advent of biologic therapies dramatically improved the lives of patients with C1-INH-HAE although further improvement is still needed. Whether this is cost/effective will be answered in the next years when we will see if these major advances will benefit the majority of the patients. For more information click here.
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