Low-dose rituximab therapy in steroid-refractory thrombocytopenia due to systemic lupus erythematosus

We present a report of four female patients with newly diagnosed SLE, accompanied by p urpuric syndrome and severe thrombocytopenia (<  30 × 109/L) as the clinical debut that was refractory to glucocorticoids (GC) therapy and treated with low doses of RTX. By week 5, complete response (>  100 × 109/L) was achieved in two patients, partial response (>  50 × 109/L) in 1 patient, and no response in one patient. There is little information on the treatment of SLE-associated autoimmune thrombocytopenia. The most extensive study found at the time of our search was the study of 10 Asian patients. They found that 80% of the patients responded by week four and maintained until week 24 of follow-up. At week 36, a follow-up for two patients showed relapse; this occurred on patients with the most disease duration (>  5 years) and was associated with a lower response rate. In contrast, our study with four patients found that half of them presented a complete response: one patient added concomitant therapy with azathioprine (AZA) and another patient without the concomitant therapy. A third patient with a parti al improvement, this was seen by week five of treatment. Moreover, a fourth patient who did not have a response by week five of treatment presented a clinical response in subsequent appointments with a count of >  100 at week 24. Those patients who required concomitant use of AZA were patients who had positive antiphospholipid serology. The ...
Source: Rheumatology International - Category: Rheumatology Source Type: research