title: Treatment of difficult cases of systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis with tacrolimus.
abstract: Since a proportion of systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SOJIA) patients continue to require long-term corticosteroid therapy for disease control, an effective and safe therapeutic strategy for controlling the activity of refractory SOJIA remains to be established. We report the efficacy of tacrolimus for the treatment of SOJIA in two patients with refractory SOJIA, one of them showing poor response to cyclosporine A. Tacrolimus might be the treatment of choice in selected patients with refractory systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis. Further studies to confirm the long-term efficacy and safety of tacrolimus in larger numbers of patients are, however, needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Hirosaki University School of Medicine, 5 Zaifu-cho, Hirosaki, 036-8562, Japan. hirotana@cc.hirosaki-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsugawa
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Ei-shin
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Oki
authors.forename: Kazuhito
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nonaka
authors.forename: Shigeru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kimura
authors.forename: Etsuro
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ito
mesh_terms: D001171:Arthritis, Juvenile / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D013792:Thalidomide / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D013792:Thalidomide