Margarida Maia, PhD, science writer —

A Japanese woman developed cold agglutination disease (CAD) following COVID-19 and a secondary bacterial infection in the lungs that may have worsened her symptoms, a case study showed. “There is a need for continuous observation to evaluate whether COVID-19, even when it does not require hospitalization, is related to…

Vermont Governor Phil Scott has signed into law a bill that improves access to the right medication at the right time by requiring both private and public health insurers to make timely exceptions to their step therapy policies. Misuse of step therapy protocols, which require patients to “fail first” on…

A woman with both cold agglutinin disease (CAD) and myelodysplastic syndrome, a rare blood cancer, responded well to treatment with a moderate dose of the corticosteroid prednisolone followed by cyclosporine, an immunosuppressant, a case study reports. While corticosteroids usually fail to treat CAD, they were used in this case…

Daratumumab, given on its own, could be a treatment for adults with hard to treat cold agglutinin disease (CAD), with more than half of the patients in a small study in Europe responding well to the therapy. The findings add to previous reports about the successful use of…

Cold agglutinin disease (CAD) secondary to a blood cancer was the most likely diagnosis for an elderly woman in Washington, D.C., despite a negative result on a diagnostic test for CAD known as a direct Coombs test, a case report shows. The test assesses whether red blood cells…

Cold agglutinin disease (CAD) secondary to an infection with the Epstein-Barr virus led to a blocked vein due to blood clots in a young girl in Turkey, prolonging her hospital stay, a case study shows. The report, “A Rare Case Presentation: EBV-related Cold Agglutinin Disease and Venous Thrombosis,”…

People with cold agglutinin disease (CAD) who were on Enjaymo (sutimlimab-jome) during clinical trials produced antibodies in response to COVID-19 vaccination, suggesting their ability to mount an immune response was not impaired, a recent study reports. In patients with a waning immune response, a booster dose was enough…

A young boy in Portugal developed cold agglutinin disease (CAD) and an inflammatory condition called hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) secondary to an infection with the Epstein-Barr virus, which can cause infectious mononucleosis, or mono. The boy recovered fully after being treated with corticosteroids, a type of anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive medication,…

While cold agglutinin disease (CAD) may vary widely in severity and course, more than half of patients experience symptoms of anemia (too few red blood cells) and have slower blood clotting that may lead to excessive bleeding. That’s according to a study in the U.S. that also found more…

Low levels of a protein that helps to regulate B-cell activity may explain why these immune cells turn highly active, overproducing so many of the self-reactive antibodies that cause cold agglutinin disease (CAD), a study suggests. This protein, called complement receptor 1 (CR1), acts as a control on B-cells,…