%0 Journal Article
%T Achievement of Therapeutic Goals with Low-Dose Imiglucerase in Gaucher Disease: A Single-Center Experience
%A Irina Tukan
%A Irith Hadas-Halpern
%A Gheona Altarescu
%A Ayala Abrahamov
%A Deborah Elstein
%A Ari Zimran
%J Advances in Hematology
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/151506
%X Gaucher disease, a lysosomal storage disorder, is a multisystem disorder with variable and unpredictable onset and severity. Disease-specific enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) has been shown to reverse or ameliorate disease-specific hepatosplenomegaly and anemia and thrombocytopenia. ERT also impacts bone manifestations, including bone crises, bone pain, and appearance of new osteonecrosis, and improves bone mineral density to varying degrees. The objective of this study was to assess achievement of predefined therapeutic goals based on international registry outcomes for Israeli patients with Gaucher disease receiving imiglucerase for four consecutive years on a low-dose regimen followed in a single center. All data were taken from patient files. The therapeutic goals were taken from standards published in the literature for disease-specific clinical parameters. Among 164 patients at baseline, values for spleen and liver volumes, hemoglobin and platelet counts, and Z-scores for lumbar spine and femoral were significantly different from the goal. After four years ERT, there was a significant improvement ( ) in each of the therapeutic goal parameters from baseline. 15.2% of these patients achieved all hematology-visceral goals. In children, there was achievement of linear growth and puberty. This survey highlights the good overall response in symptomatic patients receiving low-dose ERT with imiglucerase in Israel. 1. Introduction Gaucher disease, a prevalent lysosomal storage disorder, is a multisystem disorder with variable and unpredictable onset and severity especially in the common nonneuronopathic form [1]. Patients with nonneuronopathic (type 1) Gaucher disease may suffer from varying degrees of splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, thrombocytopenia, bleeding tendencies, anemia, hypermetabolism, skeletal pathology, growth retardation in children, and/or pulmonary disease; invariably, health-related quality of life is affected. Age of onset may be in any decade of life, and there are no apparent triggers to onset; yet there are also periods of quiescence even in patients with severe manifestations such as debilitating and irreversible skeletal complications. Disease characteristics, including genotype, provide only a statistical estimation of the expected trajectory of the signs and symptoms of the disease for any particular patient. Disease-specific enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) with mannose-terminated glucocerebrosidase (alglucerase, Ceredase, Genzyme Corporation, Cambridge, MA, USA) was introduced in 1991 [2]. Subsequently, a recombinant enzyme
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