Treatment of difficult cases of systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis with tacrolimus.
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.
Tanaka
Hiroshi
H
Department of Pediatrics, Hirosaki University School of Medicine, 5 Zaifu-cho, Hirosaki, 036-8562, Japan. hirotana@cc.hirosaki-u.ac.jp
Tsugawa
Koji
K
Suzuki
Koichi
K
Oki
Ei-shin
ES
Nonaka
Kazuhito
K
Kimura
Shigeru
S
Ito
Etsuro
E
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*
D007166:Immunosuppressive Agents; D013792:Thalidomide