% IMPORTANT: The following is UTF-8 encoded. This means that in the presence
% of non-ASCII characters, it will not work with BibTeX 0.99 or older.
% Instead, you should use an up-to-date BibTeX implementation like “bibtex8” or
% “biber”.
@ARTICLE{Ruzicka:301720,
author = {M. Ruzicka and T. Wimmer and H.-J. Stemmler and S.-S.
Stecher and H. Schulze-Koops and F. Hauck and M.
Subklewe$^*$ and M. von Bergwelt-Baildon$^*$ and K.
Spiekermann$^*$},
title = {{C}linical features, course, and risk factors of
infection-associated secondary hemophagocytic
lymphohistiocytosis.},
journal = {Infection},
volume = {nn},
issn = {0300-8126},
address = {München},
publisher = {Urban $\&$ Vogel},
reportid = {DKFZ-2025-01112},
pages = {nn},
year = {2025},
note = {epub},
abstract = {Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is an orphan
disease characterized by excessive inflammation and poor
outcome. We sought to further characterize clinical
features, courses, and risk factors of secondary HLH (sHLH)
triggered by infection (iHLH). 28 $(43.1\%)$ of 65 adult
sHLH cases treated at our hospital from 2012-2024 were
infection-associated. iHLH patients were mostly male
$(71.4\%).$ Infectious agents most frequently detected were
EBV $(57.1\%)$ and leishmania $(14.3\%).$ The median time to
diagnosis was 13 [6.0;24.8] days. iHLH patients had a
mortality rate of $39.3\%$ (median follow-up time: 735
[336;1140] days), worse survival than patients with
autoimmune-triggered (hazard ratio: 3.33 (1.01-11.10), p =
0.049), and better survival than patients with
paraneoplastic HLH (hazard ratio: 0.19 (0.10-0.84), p =
0.002). Elevated levels of soluble interleukin-2 receptor
(sIL2R; > 6,000 I/U), low thrombocyte counts (< 40 G/l), and
a history of malignant disease were associated with adverse
outcomes. Protracted time to diagnosis was associated with
severe disease courses and with leishmaniosis. Further,
sIL2R levels correlated positively with prolonged aPTT and
thrombocytopenia, and hypertriglyceridemia with elevated
INRs. Patients with an elevated sIL2R:ferritin ratio were
more likely to have a history of malignant comorbidities.
Taken together, sIL2R, thrombocytopenia, and a history of
malignant disease are important prognostic factors of iHLH.
Patients with high sIL2R levels or hypertriglyceridemia may
be at higher risk of bleeding, and patients with elevated
sIL2R:ferritin ratios should be assessed for possible
malignant comorbidities. Lastly, increased awareness of the
disease and newly emerging pathogens (i.e. leishmania) may
shorten the time to diagnosis, and thus reduce severe
courses of iHLH.},
keywords = {Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (Other) /
Infection-associated HLH (Other) / Prognostic factors of HLH
(Other) / Risk factors of HLH (Other) / Secondary HLH
(Other)},
cin = {MU01},
ddc = {610},
cid = {I:(DE-He78)MU01-20160331},
pnm = {899 - ohne Topic (POF4-899)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-899},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
pubmed = {pmid:40425997},
doi = {10.1007/s15010-025-02559-z},
url = {https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/301720},
}