ABSTRACT
UNLABELLED: Some patients with thrombocytopenia due SLE fail to respond to conventional therapies. Rituximab has been reported to be an alternative for patient treatment. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the response of thrombocytopenia due to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus to the use of Rituximab and patient relapse time at our hospital. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analyzed patients with SLE than received a 2 gram rituximab treatment for thrombocytopenia. We analyzed the rate of patients that achieved complete remission (CR), defined as a platelet count over 100mil/mm(3), partial remission (PR) described as platelets within 50-100mil/mm(3) and no response (NR) if platelets remained unchanged and the time the remission was sustained. RESULTS: 16 treatments were applied to 13 patients, aged 28±9 years of age and SLE mean duration time of 68±44 months with a mean platelet count of 38±29mil. In 14 treatments (87%) remission was achieved after 5±2 weeks where 2 patients (12.5%) were non respondent. One of them died due to a massive hemorrhage. The mean response time without relapse was 15.6±6 months. Follow up of three patients was not possible and 3 other died due to infections. CONCLUSIONS: Rituximab is an alternative for treatment of thrombocytopenia due to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.
