The Sclerosing Cholangitis Outcomes in Pediatrics (SCOPE) Index: A Prognostic Tool for Children

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

Disease progression in children with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is variable. Prognostic and risk-stratification tools exist for adult-onset PSC, but not for children. We aimed to create a tool that accounts for the biochemical and phenotypic features and early disease stage of pediatric PSC.

APPROACH AND RESULTS

We used retrospective data from the Pediatric PSC Consortium. The training cohort contained 1,012 patients from 40 centers. We generated a multivariate risk index (Sclerosing Cholangitis Outcomes in Pediatrics [SCOPE] index) that contained total bilirubin, albumin, platelet count, gamma glutamyltransferase, and cholangiography to predict a primary outcome of liver transplantation or death (TD) and a broader secondary outcome that included portal hypertensive, biliary, and cancer complications termed hepatobiliary complications (HBCs). The model stratified patients as low, medium, or high risk based on progression to TD at rates of <1%, 3%, and 9% annually and to HBCs at rates of 2%, 6%, and 13% annually, respectively (P < 0.001). C-statistics to discriminate outcomes at 1 and 5 years were 0.95 and 0.82 for TD and 0.80 and 0.76 for HBCs, respectively. Baseline hepatic fibrosis stage was worse with increasing risk score, with extensive fibrosis in 8% of the lowest versus 100% with the highest risk index (P < 0.001). The model was validated in 240 children from 11 additional centers and performed well.

CONCLUSIONS

The SCOPE index is a pediatric-specific prognostic tool for PSC. It uses routinely obtained, objective data to predict a complicated clinical course. It correlates strongly with biopsy-proven liver fibrosis. SCOPE can be used with families for shared decision making on clinical care based on a patient's individual risk, and to account for variable disease progression when designing future clinical trials.

Auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo simulations of neutron matter in chiral effective field theory

We present variational Monte Carlo calculations of the neutron matter equation of state using chiral nuclear forces. The ground-state wave function of neutron matter, containing nonperturbative many-body correlations, is obtained from auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo simulations of up to about 340 neutrons interacting on a 10(3) discretized lattice. The evolution Hamiltonian is chosen to be attractive and spin independent in order to avoid the fermion sign problem and is constructed to best reproduce broad features of the chiral nuclear force. This is facilitated by choosing a lattice spacing of 1.5 fm, corresponding to a momentum-space cutoff of Λ=414  MeV/c, a resolution scale at which strongly repulsive features of nuclear two-body forces are suppressed. Differences between the evolution potential and the full chiral nuclear interaction (Entem and Machleidt Λ=414  MeV [L. Coraggio et al., Phys. Rev. C 87, 014322 (2013).

Initial experience of subfascial endoscopic perforator vein surgery in patients with severe chronic venous insufficiency

Subfascial Endoscopic Perforator Surgery (SEPS) is a foolproof method of treatment of perforating veins reflux without direct surgical manipulation in the area of trophic disturbances. In this paper, we present initial case series, consisted of 5 patients with severe chronic venous insufficiency (CEAP classes C4-C6), SEPS being used in complex treatment. The criteria used for selection of the patients for SEPS was presence of incompetent perforating veins in the area of trophic disturbances, confirmed by duplex scanning of the venous system. Dual-port SEPS technique with using of space-maker was performed in combination with high ligation and below-knee stripping of long saphenous vein. No early postoperative complications related to SEPS were noted. Healing of all active venous ulcers among patients in class C6 and decrease of clinical severity score in all cases were achieved during follow-up period ranged from 2 to 13 months. Results of treatment in the presented case series confirm high effectiveness of SEPS in severe chronic venous insufficiency.

Revealing some oncofetal antigens in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of donors and patients with B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Eidelman et al. showed that the expression of functional carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) on the surface of cells can block terminal differentiation and maintain their proliferative capabilities. This led us to analyze the expression of CEA, trophoblast-specific beta-1-glycoprotein (TSG) and embryonic prealbumin-1 (EPA) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMs) isolated from healthy donors and patients with B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL). We demonstrated that the PBMs of patients with B-CLL differed from PBMs of healthy donors by having greater numbers of CEA-, EPA- and TSG-positive cells.

Extreme short-bowel syndrome in an infant

This full term male infant required a 90% enterectomy for congenital intestinal volvulus shortly after birth. The remaining small bowel consisted of 8 cm of proximal jejunum anastomosed to 5 cm of terminal ileum. The ileocecal valve was intact. Parenteral nutrition was administered for the first 21 months, including 17 months of home parenteral nutrition. The child's oral diet was mother's milk until 28 months of age when he was switched to an elemental diet. Solids were introduced at 6 months of age. Presently, at 36 months of age, the infant is off parenteral nutrition and is maintaining good nutritional status on a diet of 150 calories per kilo per day. His major problem has been an extreme allergy to cow's-milk protein. This infant is remarkable, since, despite record short bowel length, he maintained a completely normal growth and development, had remarkably few serious complications, spent relatively little time in hospital, and has documented improvement of G.I. absorption and radiographic contrast studies.