ABSTRACT
We had a rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patient resistant to multiple drugs and who developed panniculitis due to etanercept treatment, then responded fairly well to rituximab. Intracellular staining of cytokines in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells before and after rituximab administration revealed that the cytokine production, representative of T-helper (Th)1-, Th2-, and Th17-type responses, decreased abruptly after the treatment. Interestingly, this timing coincided with that of the manifestation of the beneficial effect. This relationship may provide useful insight into the mechanism of action of the drug and hence about the pathogenesis of RA.
Subject(s)
Antibodies, Monoclonal/therapeutic use , Antirheumatic Agents/therapeutic use , Arthritis, Rheumatoid/drug therapy , Arthritis, Rheumatoid/metabolism , Cytokines/metabolism , Lymphocyte Subsets/metabolism , Antibodies, Monoclonal, Murine-Derived , CD4-CD8 Ratio , Female , Flow Cytometry , Humans , Middle Aged , RituximabABSTRACT
We report a patient with vasculo-Behçet's disease treated successfully with a high dose of prednisolone. In 2002, the patient was diagnosed with vasculo-Behçet's disease. He was admitted to our hospital because of sudden-onset right lower back pain in June 2006. Upon admission, abdominal angiography revealed aneurysmal dilatations of the celiac and superior mesenteric arteries. He was treated promptly with high-dose prednisolone, after which the aneurysms displayed no further enlargement. As we believe this case to be quite rare, we report this case with a literature review in support of this characterization.
