Women with recurrent miscarriage were treated with low molecular weight heparin versus usual pregnancy care
By Zahra Pakbaz, MD from UCI Health
Today was mainly MOASC Hematology Spotlight, and my session was about nonmalignant hematology. So I tried to summarize some of the abstracts which were presented at ASH. But because of, it’s a garden variety of diseases are all bunched up in non-cancer blood disorders. So I decided to pick the two benign hematology late breaking abstracts. One was about PNH (Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria) and the new development of an overall medication complement inhibitor and B factor, B inhibitor, which is called Iptacopan.
And then the other late breaking abstract was about should we anti-coagulate patients who are pregnant and have history of miscarriages and confirmed thrombophilia, genetic thrombophilia or not. So these were the two late breaking abstracts that I discussed today.
And also there was one of the abstracts that I was I worked with some other colleagues internationally about quality of life in sickle cell disease, which was highlighted at best of ASH. We discussed that, and also a very brief mention of gene therapy study which seems very promising in sickle cell disease. So these were the studies I highlighted, and I also for people so that they know what clinical trials we have been doing at we are open, we have open for patients with thalassemia and sickle cell disease.
Mainly we have trial with Inclacumab, which is a P-selectin inhibitor. We also have two trials open for sickle cell patients, with Etavopivat which is a pyruvate kinase activator. And we also are looking at trying to open a trial, basically a research project about iron, the position in brain in transfusion, independent thalassemia patients. One of the Etavopivat studies is also open for thalassemia patients, whether they are transfused or they are transfusion independent, but have low hemoglobin We have another trial that’s for cancer patients providing supportive care while they’re having chemotherapy in chemotherapy induced thrombocytopenia or low platelet count as supportive care. So that’s another trial we have open. Anybody has any patient that they think is gonna benefit them, they can contact me and I provide more information and we can see if we can help their patients.
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Is there anything you’d like to highlight about the studies?
We think that having different trials and treatments for patients with rare diseases is important because these are rare condition. It’s very hard to do trials. As a clinicians, we should take advantage of these trials that are open and get our patients on it, because most of the time these patients are devastated, there is no cure. A lot of them don’t have donor for bone marrow transplant, which is cure for many of these patients. Getting them on these trials is important to help them survive, the disease until cure is coming out someday. But , we have to keep them healthy until the cure comes out. So that’s really like a bridge to cure, to keep them healthy.
Zahra Pakbaz, MD – About The Author, Credentials, and Affiliations
Zahra Pakbaz, MD, is an Associate Professor and board-certified hematologist at UCI Health who specializes in non-cancerous blood disorders. Her clinical interests include thalassemia, sickle cell anemia, iron overload, coagulation disorders, and illnesses characterized by low or elevated counts of platelets and white or red blood cells.
Dr. Pakbaz got her medical degree and completed her residency at Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran. She did a residency in internal medicine at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as a fellowship in adult hematology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.
Dr. Pakbaz has produced over sixty scholarly articles and lectures on sickle cell anemia, thalassemia, and iron metabolism. Patients with sickle cell anemia and thalassemia have benefited from her research. She has garnered many honors for her efforts to sickle cell research and treatment. She is committed to providing patient-centered treatment to those with blood diseases, and she collaborates with primary care physicians and other specialists.
Dr. Pakbaz sees patients in the Orange location of the UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.