BMC Urology (Aug 2020)

Can clinical and urodynamic parameters predict the occurrence of neutralizing antibodies in therapy failure of intradetrusor onabotulinumtoxin A injections in patients with spinal cord injury?

  • Christian Tiburtius,
  • Ralf Böthig,
  • Birgitt Kowald,
  • Sven Hirschfeld,
  • Roland Thietje

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12894-020-00683-6
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Abstract Background The aim of the study was to clarify whether clinical and/or urodynamic parameters could be used to infer the probability of neutralizing antibody (NAb) formation as a possible cause of therapy failure (non-response, NR) in patients with neurogenic detrusor overactivity (NDO) due to acquired spinal cord injury/disease (SCI/D) treated with intradetrusor botulinum neurotoxin A (BoNT-A) injections. Methods A retrospective chart review was performed of all patients with SCI/D who underwent both intradetrusor onabotulinumtoxin A injections and the determination of neutralizing antibodies against BoNT-A between January 1, 2002, and December 31, 2018. NR was defined as urodynamically confirmed persistent or reappearing NDO. Results A total of 2700 BoNT-A injections in 414 patients were ascertained. In 69 patients with primary NR after the first BoNT-A injection (n = 6) or with secondary NR after more than one BoNT-A injection (n = 63), an antibody analysis was performed. Antibody examination showed 36 (52.2%) negative, 5 (7.2%) borderline and 14 (each 20.3%) each of positive and highly positive values. Subgroup analysis indicated a correlation between NAb formation and the duration of BoNT-A therapy (p = 0.015), the mean number of BoNT-A injections (p = 0.011) and the time interval between BoNT-A applications ( 45 cmH2O, p = 0.040). However, in the regression analysis models, the predictive value for the occurrence of NAb was too low (MCC: ROC AUC 0.62, MDP: ROC AUC 0.52) to distinguish with sufficient certainty between NAb-positive and NAb-negative NR patients. Conclusions Despite significant correlations, clinical and urodynamic parameters are only partially suitable for predicting antibody formation against BoNT-A.

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