CURRENT ISSUE
EDITOR'S PICKS
ARTICLES IN THREE SENTENCES
Case Series
A case series of patients with β-thalassemia trait and iron overload: from multifactorial hepcidin suppression to treatment with mini-phlebotomies
Subjects with beta-thalassemia trait (βTT) display mild ineffective erythropoiesis and may develop multifactorial suppression of hepcidin, sometimes leading to clinically relevant iron overload (IO). As no guidelines are currently available for the management of IO in βTT individuals, Busti and colleagues pragmatically offered their patients a personalized low-intensity venesection approach based on ‘mini-phlebotomies’, and report here results of the first case series. This approach was effective and well tolerated, with no exacerbation of anemia.
Letter
Serum B-cell maturation antigen could be a simple and accurate biomarker to identify and prognosticate monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and smoldering multiple myeloma
Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM) have an intrinsic risk of progressing to symptomatic multiple myeloma (MM). Toho and colleagues evaluated the serum B-cell maturation antigen (sBCMA) levels in patients with MGUS, SMM, and MM and investigated the correlation between sBCMA and other biomarkers, including cytogenetic abnormalities. They demonstrated that sBCMA is a valuable biomarker to distinguish SMM from active MM and predict disease progression in SMM patients.
Letter
Overlapping DNA methylation changes in enhancers in clonal cytopenia of undetermined significance and myelodysplastic neoplasm patients with TET2, IDH2, or DNMT3A mutations
Myelodysplastic neoplasms (MDS) share several clinical and molecular features, as mutations in genes regulating DNA methylation, with the precursor entities, such as cytopenia of undetermined significance (CCUS). Kaastrup and colleagues investigated whether CCUS and MDS patients with mutations in TET2, IDH2, or DNMT3A have distinct DNA methylation patterns compared to patients without any of these mutations. Results showed the existence of distinct and non-random DNA methylation changes associated with mutations in TET2, IDH2 and DNMT3A in CCUS and MDS.
Article
Air pollution, residential greenspace, and the risk of incident immune thrombocytopenic purpura: a prospective cohort study of 356,482 participants
Epidemiological studies have indicated that long-term exposure to ambient air pollution facilitated the occurrence of various autoimmune diseases. The study of Luo and colleagues aimed to utilize the UK Biobank to investigate the individual or combined associations of long-term exposure to ambient air pollutants and residential greenspace with the risk of incident immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). In a cohort of 356,482 participants free of ITP at baseline, results show that long-term exposure to ambient PM2.5, PM10, NO2 and NOx may increase ITP risk, whereas residential greenspace may decrease this risk.
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