Low dose cyclosporine-a therapy in severe aplastic anaemia.

OBJECTIVE: The present study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of low dose cyclosporine-A in the patients of severe aplastic anaemia, who cannot afford allogenic bone marrow transplantation and immunosuppressive therapy with antithymocyte globulin. METHODS: The diagnosis of severe aplastic anaemia was established by standard criteria. Twelve patients were given cyclosporine-A orally at a dose of 6 mg/kg body weight in divided doses in two daily equal proportions for six months. Eleven patients were put on oral stanozolol in the dosage of 1 mg/kg body weight/day in divided doses. All surviving patients were evaluated at three and six months. RESULTS: At the end of six months, 41.66% of twelve patients responded to cyclosporine-A. One patient had complete response and four patients had partial response. Only one out of 11 patients receiving stanozolol responded. CONCLUSIONS: i) Cyclosporine-A is a viable therapeutic option in the treatment of severe aplastic anaemia, ii) Low dose cyclosporine-A is able to slow down the stormy course of the severe aplastic anaemia, iii) Androgens have very little effect on the survival of patients of severe aplastic anaemia.