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- Brusselaers, N., et al.
(författare)
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Evaluation of science advice during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sweden
- 2022
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Ingår i: Humanities & Social Sciences Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2662-9992. ; 9:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sweden was well equipped to prevent the pandemic of COVID-19 from becoming serious. Over 280 years of collaboration between political bodies, authorities, and the scientific community had yielded many successes in preventive medicine. Sweden's population is literate and has a high level of trust in authorities and those in power. During 2020, however, Sweden had ten times higher COVID-19 death rates compared with neighbouring Norway. In this report, we try to understand why, using a narrative approach to evaluate the Swedish COVID-19 policy and the role of scientific evidence and integrity. We argue that that scientific methodology was not followed by the major figures in the acting authorities-or the responsible politicians-with alternative narratives being considered as valid, resulting in arbitrary policy decisions. In 2014, the Public Health Agency merged with the Institute for Infectious Disease Control; the first decision by its new head (Johan Carlson) was to dismiss and move the authority's six professors to Karolinska Institute. With this setup, the authority lacked expertise and could disregard scientific facts. The Swedish pandemic strategy seemed targeted towards "natural" herd-immunity and avoiding a societal shutdown. The Public Health Agency labelled advice from national scientists and international authorities as extreme positions, resulting in media and political bodies to accept their own policy instead. The Swedish people were kept in ignorance of basic facts such as the airborne SARS-CoV-2 transmission, that asymptomatic individuals can be contagious and that face masks protect both the carrier and others. Mandatory legislation was seldom used; recommendations relying upon personal responsibility and without any sanctions were the norm. Many elderly people were administered morphine instead of oxygen despite available supplies, effectively ending their lives. If Sweden wants to do better in future pandemics, the scientific method must be re-established, not least within the Public Health Agency. It would likely make a large difference if a separate, independent Institute for Infectious Disease Control is recreated. We recommend Sweden begins a self-critical process about its political culture and the lack of accountability of decision-makers to avoid future failures, as occurred with the COVID-19 pandemic.
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- Horne, A., et al.
(författare)
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Efficacy of Moderately Dosed Etoposide in Macrophage Activation Syndrome-Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Rheumatology. - : The Journal of Rheumatology. - 0315-162X .- 1499-2752. ; 48:10, s. 1596-1602
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Objective. Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) constitutes 1 subtype of the hyperinflammatory syndrome hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), and the term MAS-HLH was recently proposed for HLH with underlying autoimmune/autoinflammatory conditions. The mortality of MAS-HLH has been estimated at 5-10%. Here we report our experiences with moderately dosed etoposide in severe MAS-HLH; the objective was to effectively reduce severe hyperinflammatory activity with limited side effects. Methods. In addition to conventional antiinflammatory treatment, moderately dosed etoposide was administered to 7 children affected by rapidly progressing MAS-HLH with central nervous system (n = 5) and/ or pulmonary (n = 5) involvement. Three had underlying systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis (sJIA), 2 had atypical sJIA (no arthritis at diagnosis), and 2 had systemic lupus erythematosus. We performed lymphocyte cytotoxicity analyses in all 7 and genetic analyses in 6. Results. All children promptly responded to moderately dosed etoposide (50-100 mg/m(2Y) once weekly), added to conventional MAS-HLH treatment that was considered insufficient. The mean accumulated etoposide dose was 671 mg/m(2) (range 300-1050 mg/m(2)) as compared to 1500 mg/m(2) recommended in the first 8 weeks of the HLH-94/HLH-2004 protocols. One child developed neutropenic fever and another neutropenic sepsis (neutrophils 0.3 x 10(9)/L at therapy onset). Five of 7 children had low percentages (< 5%) of circulating natural killer (NK) cells prior to or in association with diagnosis; NK cell activity was pathologically low in 2 of 5 children studied. Disease-causing variants in HLH-associated genes were not found. All children were alive at latest follow-up (2-9 yrs after onset); neurological symptoms had normalized in 4 of 5 affected children. Conclusion. Moderately dosed etoposide may be beneficial in severe and/or refractory MAS-HLH.
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- Lindahl, H, et al.
(författare)
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Lineage-specific early complete donor chimerism and risk of relapse after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for acute myeloid leukemia
- 2022
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Ingår i: Bone marrow transplantation. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1476-5365 .- 0268-3369. ; 57:5, s. 753-759
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recipient–donor chimerism is routinely analyzed after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) to monitor engraftment and graft rejection. For malignancies, chimerism can also be used to screen for disease relapse post-HSCT but methodology and interpretation of results are not standardized and likely depend on underlying diagnosis. We have implemented highly sensitive and accurate methodologies for chimerism analysis for the purpose of improving relapse prediction. Here, we report an exploratory retrospective analysis of clinical routine chimerism results from all 154 HSCTs for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) performed at our center during the years 2015–2020 with the aim of suggesting a clinically useful threshold at which risk of relapse is high. Relapse was not reliably predicted based on single elevated chimerism values obtained before time of overt relapse. However, early complete donor chimerism, here defined as recipient DNA < 0.2% in CD33+ cells in any blood or bone marrow sample taken during the first 60 days after HSCT, correlated inversely with relapse during the observation time (log-rank test P = 0.033). We propose that achievement of complete chimerism determined early after HSCT using sensitive methods can be used for risk-stratification of AML patients.
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