Recombinant human thrombopoietin treatment in patients with chronic liver disease-related thrombocytopenia undergoing invasive procedures:A retrospective study

BACKGROUND Chronic liver disease(CLD)related thrombocytopenia increases the risk of bleeding and poor prognosis.Many liver disease patients require invasive procedures or surgeries,such as liver biopsy or endoscopic variceal ligation,and most of them have lower platelet counts,which could aggravate the risk of bleeding due to liver dysfunction and coagulation disorders.Unfortunately,there is no defined treatment modality for CLD-induced thrombocytopenia.Recombinant human thrombopoietin(rhTPO)is commonly used to treat primary immune thrombocytopenic purpura and thrombocytopenia caused by solid tumor chemotherapy;however,there are few reports on the use of rhTPO in the treatment of CLD-related thrombocytopenia.AIM To evaluate the efficacy of rhTPO in the treatment of patients with CLDassociated thrombocytopenia undergoing invasive procedures.METHODS All analyses were based on the retrospective collection of clinical data of patients with CLD who were treated in the Department of Infectious Diseases at The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University between June 2020 and December 2021.Fifty-nine male and 41 female patients with liver disease were enrolled in this study to assess the changes in platelet counts and parameters before and after the use of rhTPO for thrombocytopenia.Adverse events related to treatment,such as bleeding,thrombosis,and disseminated intravascular coagulation,were also investigated.RESULTS Among the enrolled patients,78(78%)showed a platelet count increase after rhTPO use,while 22(22%)showed no significant change in platelet count.The mean platelet count after rhTPO treatment in all patients was 101.53±81.81×10^(9)/L,which was significantly improved compared to that at baseline(42.88±16.72×10^(9)/L),and this difference was statistically significant(P<0.001).In addition,patients were further divided into three subgroups according to their baseline platelet counts(<30×10^(9)/L,30-50×10^(9)/L,>50×10^(9)/L).Subgroup analyses showed that the median platelet counts after treatment were significantly higher(P<0.001,all).Ninety(90%)patients did not require platelet transfusion partially due to an increase in platelet count after treatment with rhTPO.No serious adverse events related to rhTPO treatment were observed.Overall,rhTPO demonstrated good clinical efficacy for treating CLD-associated thrombocytopenia.CONCLUSION rhTPO can improve platelet count,reduce the risk of bleeding,and decrease the platelet transfusion rate,which may promote the safety of invasive procedures and improve overall survival of patients with CLD.

Gate-voltage control of alternating-current-driven skyrmion propagation in ferromagnetic nanotrack devices

Magnetic skyrmions, with topologically protected particle-like magnetization configurations, are promising information carriers for future spintronics devices with ultralow energy consumption. Generally, during motion, skyrmions suffer from the skyrmion Hall effect(Sk HE) wherein the skyrmions deflect away from the intended path of the driving force.Numerous methods have been proposed to avoid this detrimental effect. In this study, we propose controllable alternating current(AC)-driven skyrmion propagation in a ferromagnetic nanowire based on combination of gate-voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy(VCMA) and Sk HE. Micromagnetic simulations show that a skyrmion oscillatory closed-loop-like in situ motion driven by AC can be transformed into directional ratchet-like propagation along the nanotrack by creating a VCMA-gate barrier. Additionally, we show that the skyrmion propagation conditions depend on the gate barrier potential and driving AC parameters, and they can be used for the optimal design of nanotrack devices. Moreover, this mechanism could be used to control skyrmion macroscopic propagation directions by dynamically alternating the voltage of another series of gates. We further show the dynamic control of the long-distance propagation of skyrmions along with the pinning state. The study results provide a promising route for designing future skyrmion-based spintronics logical and memory devices.