Mastocytosis is a heterogeneous group of diseases with a young median age at diagnosis. Usually indolent and self-limited in childhood, the disease can exhibit aggressive progression in mid-adulthood. Our objectives were to describe the characteristics of the disease when diagnosed among elderly patients, for which rare data are available.The French Reference Center conducted a retrospective multicenter study on 53 patients with mastocytosis >69 years of age, to describe their clinical, biological, and genetic features.The median age of our cohort of patients was 75 years. Mastocytosis variants included were cutaneous (n = 1), indolent systemic (n = 5), aggressive systemic (n = 11), associated with a hematological non-mast cell disease (n = 34), and mast cell leukemia (n = 2). Clinical manifestations were predominantly mast cell activation symptoms (75.5%), poor performance status (50.9%), hepatosplenomegaly (50.9%), skin involvement (49.1%), osteoporosis (47.2%), and portal hypertension and ascites (26.4%). The main biological features were anemia (79.2%), thrombocytopenia (50.9%), leucopenia (20.8%), and liver enzyme abnormalities (32.1%). Of the 40 patients tested, 34 (85%), 2 (5%), and 4 (10%) exhibited the KIT D816V mutant, other KIT mutations and the wild-type form of the KIT gene, respectively. Additional sequencing detected significant genetic defects in 17 of 26 (65.3%) of the patients with associated hematological non-mast cell disease, including TET2, SRSF2, IDH2, and ASLX1 mutations. Death occurred in 19 (35.8%) patients, within a median delay of 9 months, despite the different treatment options available.Mastocytosis among elderly patients has a challenging early detection, rare skin involvement, and/or limited skin disease; it is heterogeneous and has often an aggressive presentation with nonfortuitous associated myeloid lineage malignant clones, and thus a poor overall prognosis.

Background Few data are available on the prognosis of older patients who received corticosteroids for COVID-19. We aimed to compare the in-hospital mortality of geriatric patients hospitalized for COVID-19 who received corticosteroids or not. Methods We conducted a multicentric retrospective cohort study in 15 acute COVID-19 geriatric wards in the Paris area from March to April 2020 and November 2020 to May 2021. We included all consecutive patients aged 70 years and older who were hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 in these wards. Propensity score and multivariate analyses were used. Results Of the 1579 patients included (535 received corticosteroids), the median age was 86 (interquartile range 81-91)years, 56% of patients were female, the median Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) was 2.6 (interquartile range 1-4), and 64% of patients were frail (Clinical Frailty Score 5-9). The propensity score analysis paired 984 patients (492 with and without corticosteroids). The in-hospital mortality was 32.3% in the matched cohort. On multivariate analysis, the probability of in-hospital mortality was increased with corticosteroids use (odds ratio [OR]=2.61 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.63-4.20]). Other factors associated with in-hospital mortality were age (OR=1.04[1.01-1.07], CCI (OR=1.18[1.07-1.29], activities of daily living (OR=0.85[0.75-0.95], oxygen saturation <90% on room air (OR=2.15[1.45-3.17], C-reactive protein level (OR=2.06[1.69-2.51] and lowest lymphocyte count (OR=0.49[0.38-0.63]). Among the 535 patients who received corticosteroids, 68.3% had at least one corticosteroid side effect, including delirium(32.9%), secondary infections(32.7%) and decompensated diabetes(14.4%). Conclusions In this multicentric matched-cohort study of geriatric patients hospitalized for COVID-19, the use of corticosteroids was significantly associated with in-hospital mortality.

In case of suspicion of tuberculosis, when bacteriologic and cytologic analysis is negative, laparoscopy with biopsies is helpful for correct diagnosis and appropriate management.

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