Treatment with peginterferon alfa-2a for 48 weeks, with or without adefovir, resulted in sustained HDV RNA clearance in about one quarter of patients with HDV infection. (Current Controlled Trials number, ISRCTN83587695.).

Key Points• This study is the first to assess prognostic factors in patients with AHA treated according to a uniform immunosuppressive regimen.• Residual factor VIII activity and inhibitor concentration at baseline are potentially useful predictors of remission.Acquired hemophilia A (AHA) is caused by autoantibodies against factor VIII (FVIII).Immunosuppressive treatment (IST) results in remission of disease in 60% to 80% of patients over a period of days to months. IST is associated with frequent adverse events, including infections as a leading cause of death. Predictors of time to remission could help guide IST intensity but have not been established. We analyzed prognostic factors in 102 prospectively enrolled patients treated with a uniform IST protocol. Partial remission (PR; defined as no active bleeding, FVIII restored >50 IU/dL, hemostatic treatment stopped >24 hours) was achieved by 83% of patients after a median of 31 days (range 7-362).Patients with baseline FVIII <1 IU/dL achieved PR less often and later (77%, 43 days) than patients with ‡1 IU/dL (89%, 24 days). After adjustment for other baseline characteristics, low FVIII remained associated with a lower rate of PR (hazard ratio 0.52, 95% confidence interval 0.33-0.81, P < .01). In contrast, PR achieved on steroids alone within £21 days was more common in patients with FVIII ‡1 IU/dL and inhibitor concentration <20 BU/mL (odds ratio 11.2, P < .0001). Low FVIII was also associated with a lower rate of complete remission and decreased survival. In conclusion, presenting FVIII and inhibitor concentration are potentially useful to tailor IST in AHA. (Blood. 2015;125(7):1091-1097

The German COPD cohort comprises patients with advanced and less advanced COPD. This is particularly useful for studying the time course of COPD in relation to comorbidities. Baseline data indicate that COSYCONET offers the opportunity to investigate our research questions in a large-scale, high-quality dataset.

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