Rituximab in refractory sarcoidosis: a single centre experience.
Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous disease whose outcome varies from spontaneous remission to chronic refractory disease. Provided that steroids represent the gold standard as a first line treatment, many immune suppressants drugs are currently used in the disease management. However, refractory disease is still a great challenge. Rituximab is an anti-CD20 chimeric monoclonal antibody, currently used for the treatment of B cell malignancies and systemic autoimmune diseases. There are few case reports describing the successful use of Rituximab in refractory sarcoidosis with lung, eye, lymph nodes and skin involvement. In this paper we described three different case reports in which Rituximab has been used to treat refractory sarcoidosis and we reviewed the existing literature.
Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine-DIMED, Padova University Hospital, via Giustiniani 2, 35128 Padua, Italy.
Francesco
F
Cinetto
Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine-DIMED, Padova University Hospital, via Giustiniani 2, 35128 Padua, Italy.
Nicolò
N
Compagno
Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine-DIMED, Padova University Hospital, via Giustiniani 2, 35128 Padua, Italy.
Riccardo
R
Scarpa
Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine-DIMED, Padova University Hospital, via Giustiniani 2, 35128 Padua, Italy.
Giacomo
G
Malipiero
Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine-DIMED, Padova University Hospital, via Giustiniani 2, 35128 Padua, Italy.
Carlo
C
Agostini
Granulomatosis; Refractory sarcoidosis; Rituximab