Skip Navigation


Rheumatology Advance Access originally published online on June 16, 2009
Rheumatology 2009 48(8):968-971; doi:10.1093/rheumatology/kep157
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Supplementary Data
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
48/8/968    most recent
kep157v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Sem, M.
Right arrow Articles by Gran, J. T.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Sem, M.
Right arrow Articles by Gran, J. T.
Related Collections
Right arrow Myositis and Muscle Disease
Right arrow Pharmacology
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Rituximab treatment of the anti-synthetase syndrome—a retrospective case series

Marthe Sem1,2,*, Øyvind Molberg1,*, May Brit Lund3 and Jan Tore Gran1

1Department of Rheumatology, Rikshospitalet University Hospital, 2Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo and 3Department of Respiratory Medicine, Rikshospitalet University Hospital, Oslo, Norway.

Correspondence to: Øyvind Molberg, Department of Rheumatology, Rikshospitalet University Hospital, N-0027 Oslo, Norway. E-mail: oyvind.molberg{at}medisin.uio.no


  Abstract

Objective. Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is the major determinant of morbidity and mortality in the anti-synthetase syndrome (ASS). Here we have retrospectively assessed 11 ASS patients with ILD treated with the anti-CD20 mAB rituximab at our tertiary referral hospital.

Methods. Data on clinical and laboratory parameters, lung imaging by high-resolution CT thorax and pulmonary function tests were collected from patient examinations done up to 6 months before rituximab was initiated, and at 3 and 6 months post-treatment.

Results. All the 11 ASS patients had severe and progressive ILD and most of them had previously failed on cyclophosphamide and/or other immuno-modulating agents. Rituximab appeared to stabilize and/or improve the ILD in 7 of 11 ASS patients during the first 6 months after treatment. The rituximab treatment appeared to decrease the serum level of anti-Jo-1 antibodies, but the decrease was most often modest. One patient developed a fatal infection 3 months after the last infusion with rituximab. In the other ASS patients, the treatment was well tolerated.

Conclusions. This retrospective case series indicates a short-term beneficial effect of rituximab in ASS. Prospective, controlled studies are needed to validate this finding and further assess safety issues.

KEY WORDS: Rituximab, Anti-synthetase syndrome, Treatment, Anti-Jo-1, Anti-aminoacyl tRNA synthetase

*Marthe Sem and Øyvind Molberg equally contributed to this work.

Submitted 20 February 2009; revised version accepted 14 May 2009.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.