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Rituximab treatment in patients with refractory inflammatory myopathies
Rheumatology, 05/19/2011
Clinical Article
Mahler EAM et al. – Rituximab is an effective treatment in refractory inflammatory myopathies, showing a decrease in CPK and LDH, an increase in muscle strength and improvement in scores of disease activity, general health, functional ability and health related quality of life with sustained effect during a median of 27.1 months of follow-up.
Methods- 13 patients treated with rituximab 1000mg i.v., twice, with 2-week interval and followed for median of 27 months
- Primary outcomes were disease activity measured by creatine phosphokinase (CPK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels and muscle strength measured by hand-held dynamometry and manual muscle testing (MMT)
- Secondary outcomes were improvement in secondary laboratory measures, global assessment of general health, disease activity and pain, CS dose, functional ability, health-related quality of life and safety
- Retreatment with rituximab conducted if disease activity relapsed
- Median levels of CPK and LDH significantly reduced by 93.2 and 39.8%, compared with baseline after 34.6 months
- Median muscle strength measured by hand-held dynamometry significantly improved by 21.5% after 24 months
- Median increase in muscle strength measured with MMT 7.0% after 24 months of follow-up, although this did not reach statistical significance
- Secondary outcomes improved
