title: Twenty-four-week follow-up examination of a leukocytapheresis therapy in rheumatoid arthritis.
abstract: Several clinical trials have demonstrated that leukocytapheresis (LCAP) is a safe and effective therapy for patients with refractory rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, most of those reports were limited to short-term clinical observation. We have treated 11 RA patients with LCAP and observed them for 24 weeks after the final administration. The 11 cases included 3 diabetes patients, 2 patients with interstitial pneumonia, 1 patient with diffuse panbronchiolitis, and 1 patient with old pulmonary tuberculosis. Alternative therapies for all of these patients were considered difficult. Once-a-week LCAP administration was added for 5 weeks to the previous therapeutic regime in all patients, and the treatment efficacy was prospectively qualified. At 4 weeks after the final LCAP therapy, 8 of the 11 patients (73%) had achieved an American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 20% response, and 3 of the 11 (27%) had achieved both ACR 50% and ACR 70% responses. Although the efficacy decreased after the observation periods, an ACR 20% response was maintained in 5 patients (45%) at 24 weeks. Although only a limited number of patients were examined in this study, the results suggested that LCAP therapy will be beneficial to RA patients, including patients who cannot be treated with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors or conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs.
authors.affiliation: First Department of Internal Medicine, Graduate School of Biochemical Sciences, Nagasaki University, 1-7-1 Sakamoto, Nagasaki 852-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasumori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Izumi
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tominaga
authors.forename: Nozomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Iwanaga
authors.forename: Mingguo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Fumiko
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Kouichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aratake
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Arima
authors.forename: Mami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tamai
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kamachi
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ida
authors.forename: Tomoki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Origuchi
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kawakami
authors.forename: Katsumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Eguchi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007937:Leukapheresis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome