Browsing by Author "Varon, Adriana"

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    A changing etiologic scenario in liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma in a multicenter cohort study from Latin America
    (2018) Piñero, Federico; Costa, Paulo; Boteon, Yuri Longatto; Hoyos Duque, Sergio; Marciano, Sebastian; Anders, Margarita; Varon, Adriana; Zerega, Alina; Poniachik, Jaime; Soza, Alejandro; Padilla Machaca, Martin; Menendez, Josemaria; Zapata, Rodrigo; Vilatoba, Mario; Munoz, Linda; Maraschio, Martin; Podesta, Luis G.; McCormack, Lucas; Gadano, Adrian; Fatima Boin, Ilka S. F.; Garcia, Parente; Silva, Marcelo
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    Effectiveness of the implementation of a re-linkage to care strategy in patients with Hepatitis C who were lost of follow-up
    (2021) Mendizabal, Manuel; Thompson, Marcos Andres; Ridruejo, Ezequiel; Gonzalez Ballerga, Esteban; Ruiz Velasco, Jose Antonio Velarde; Palazzo, Ana; Mezzano, Gabriel; Muñoz Espinosa, Linda Elsa; Pessoa, Mario; Cerda Reyes, Eira; Soza, Alejandro; Ruiz, Sandro; Gomez-Aldana, Andres Jose; Gerona, Solange; Fuster, Francisco; Anders, Margarita; Beltran Valdivia, Flor De Maria; Poniachik, Jaime; Schinoni, Maria Isabel; Hernandez, Nelia; Montes, Pedro; Girala, Marcos; Castillo, Lida; Castillo-Barradas, Mauricio; Chavez, Rocio; Cabrera, Cecilia; Tenorio, Laura; Zevallos, Katherine; Garavito, Jorge; Brutti, Julia; Tagle, Martin; Castro Narro, Graciela; Vera Pozo, Emilia; Perazzo, Rosalia; Guillermo Toro, Luis; Varon, Adriana; Ferreiro, Melina; Lazcano, Monserrat; Dolores Murga, Maria; Gomez, Fernando; Hernandez, Larissa; Damasio Moutinho, Bruna; Gandara-Calderon, Julian; Vargas Domínguez, José Ignacio; Simian, Daniela; Silva, Marcelo
    Background: In order to achieve the World Health Organization’s ambitious goal of eliminating hepatitis C (HCV), we must implement innovative strategies to diagnose and treat more patients. Therefore, our study aimed to identify patients with chronic HCV infection who lost follow-up and offer them re-linkage to care and treatment with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs). Methods: We conducted an implementation study of a strategy to contact patients with chronic HCV who were not under regular follow-up in 10 countries from Latin America. Patients with HCV were identified by the international classification of diseases (ICD-9/10) or similar. Medical records were then reviewed to confirm the diagnosis of chronic HCV infection defined as anti-HCV + and detectable HCVRNA. Identified patients who were not under follow-up by a liver specialist were contacted to offer them a medical reevaluation and, eventually, treatment with DAA. Results: A total of 3,709 patients were classified as HCV, of which 367 (9.9%) presented undetectable HCVRNA, and 148 (4.0%) were wrongly coded. Overall, 3,194 (86.1%) individuals were identified with chronic HCV infection, 49,9% were male, median age was 61 years (IQR 51-69); 166 (5.2%) developed hepatocellular carcinoma, and 117 (3.7%) underwent liver transplantation. Advanced liver fibrosis (F3-F4) was present in 1,361 (42.6%) patients. A total of 1,764 (55.2%) patients were under close care. Of these, 1,371 (74.7%) received antiviral treatment, 70 (5.3%) did not achieve sustained virologic response, 314 (17.8%) were not treated for different reasons and 133 (7.5%) died. We identified 1,430 (44.8%) patients who were lost of follow-up, 564 (39.4%) of whom were finally located. Of those contacted, 402 (71.3%) were candidates to receive DAAs, 108 (19.2%) were treated in other institutions, 12 (2.1%) did not wish to be treated, and 42 (7.4%) died (Figure). Globally, in our study 786/3,194 (24.6%) patients were candidates to receive antiviral therapies. Conclusion: In our cohort, 1 out of 4 patients with chronic HCV could be re-linked to care and treated. This strategy impresses to be effective, accessible and, significantly impact on the HCV cascade to cure.
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    Implementation of a re-linkage to care strategy in patients with chronic hepatitis C who were lost to follow-up in Latin America
    (2023) Mendizabal, Manuel; Thompson, Marcos; Gonzalez-Ballerga, Esteban; Anders, Margarita; Castro-Narro, Graciela E.; Pessoa, Mario G.; Cheinquer, Hugo; Mezzano, Gabriel; Palazzo, Ana; Ridruejo, Ezequiel; Descalzi, Valeria; Velarde-Ruiz Velasco, Jose A.; Marciano, Sebastian; Munoz, Linda; Schinoni, Maria, I; Poniachik, Jaime; Perazzo, Rosalia; Cerda, Eira; Fuster, Francisco; Varon, Adriana; Ruiz Garcia, Sandro; Soza, Alejandro; Cabrera, Cecilia; Gomez-Aldana, Andres J.; de Maria Beltran, Flor; Gerona, Solange; Cocozzella, Daniel; Bessone, Fernando; Hernandez, Nelia; Alonso, Cristina; Ferreiro, Melina; Antinucci, Florencia; Torre, Aldo; Moutinho, Bruna D.; Coelho Borges, Silvia; Gomez, Fernando; Dolores Murga, Maria; Pinero, Federico; Sotera, Gisela F.; Ocampo, Jhonier A.; Cortes Mollinedo, Valeria A.; Simian, Daniela; Silva, Marcelo O.
    To achieve WHO's goal of eliminating hepatitis C virus (HCV), innovative strategies must be designed to diagnose and treat more patients. Therefore, we aimed to describe an implementation strategy to identify patients with HCV who were lost to follow-up (LTFU) and offer them re-linkage to HCV care. We conducted an implementation study utilizing a strategy to contact patients with HCV who were not under regular follow-up in 13 countries from Latin America. Patients with HCV were identified by the international classification of diseases (ICD-9/10) or equivalent. Medical records were then reviewed to confirm the diagnosis of chronic HCV infection defined by anti-HCV+ and detectable HCV-RNA. Identified patients who were not under follow-up by a liver specialist were contacted by telephone or email, and offered a medical reevaluation. A total of 10,364 patients were classified to have HCV. After reviewing their medical charts, 1349 (13%) had undetectable HCV-RNA or were wrongly coded. Overall, 9015 (86.9%) individuals were identified with chronic HCV infection. A total of 5096 (56.5%) patients were under routine HCV care and 3919 (43.5%) had been LTFU. We were able to contact 1617 (41.3%) of the 3919 patients who were LTFU at the primary medical institution, of which 427 (26.4%) were cured at a different institutions or were dead. Of the remaining patients, 906 (76.1%) were candidates for retrieval. In our cohort, about one out of four patients with chronic HCV who were LTFU were candidates to receive treatment. This strategy has the potential to be effective, accessible and significantly impacts on the HCV care cascade.
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    Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma: impact of expansion criteria in a multicenter cohort study from a high waitlist mortality region
    (2021) Pinero, Federico; Anders, Margarita; Boin, Ilka F.; Chagas, Aline; Quinonez, Emilio; Marciano, Sebastian; Vilatoba, Mario; Santos, Luisa; Hoyos Duque, Sergio; Lima, Agnaldo Soares; Menendez, Josemaria; Padilla, Martin; Poniachik, Jaime; Zapata, Rodrigo; Soza, Alejandro; Maraschio, Martin; Chong Menendez, Ricardo; Munoz, Linda; Arufe, Diego; Figueroa, Rodrigo; de Ataide, Elaine Cristina; Maccali, Claudia; Vergara Sandoval, Rodrigo; Bermudez, Carla; Podesta, Luis G.; McCormack, Lucas; Varon, Adriana; Gadano, Adrian; Mattera, Juan; Villamil, Federico; Rubinstein, Fernando; Carrilho, Flair; Silva, Marcelo
    This study aimed to compare liver transplantation (LT) outcomes and evaluate the potential rise in numbers of LT candidates with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) of different allocation policies in a high waitlist mortality region. Three policies were applied in two Latin American cohorts (1085 HCC transplanted patients and 917 listed patients for HCC): (i) Milan criteria with expansion according to UCSF downstaging (UCSF-DS), (ii) the AFP score, and (iii) restrictive policy or Double Eligibility Criteria (DEC; within Milan + AFP score <= 2). Increase in HCC patient numbers was evaluated in an Argentinian prospective validation set (INCUCAI; NCT03775863). Expansion criteria in policy A showed that UCSF-DS [28.4% (CI 12.8-56.2)] or "all-comers" [32.9% (CI 11.9-71.3)] had higher 5-year recurrence rates compared to Milan, with 10.9% increase in HCC patients for LT. The policy B showed lower recurrence rates for AFP scores <= 2 points, even expanding beyond Milan criteria, with a 3.3% increase. Patients within DEC had lower 5-year recurrence rates compared with those beyond DEC [13.3% (CI 10.1-17.3) vs 24.2% (CI 17.4-33.1; P = 0.0006], without significant HCC expansion. In conclusion, although the application of a stricter policy may optimize the selection process, this restrictive policy may lead to ethical concerns in organ allocation (NCT03775863).