Effectiveness of Tocilizumab in the Treatment of Fasciitis with Eosinophilia: Two Case Reports.

Eosinophilic fasciitis Shulman’s disease tocilizumab

Journal

European journal of case reports in internal medicine
ISSN: 2284-2594
Titre abrégé: Eur J Case Rep Intern Med
Pays: Italy
ID NLM: 101648453

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
2020
Historique:
received: 14 01 2020
accepted: 21 01 2020
entrez: 21 4 2020
pubmed: 21 4 2020
medline: 21 4 2020
Statut: epublish

Résumé

Fasciitis with eosinophilia (FE) is a rare connective tissue disease. Due to its rarity, large-scale studies are lacking, which makes its treatment challenging. Systemic corticosteroids (SCSs) are the cornerstone of treatment; however, additional immunosuppressive drugs (ISDs) are frequently necessary (usually methotrexate). We report 2 patients, for whom an SCS and methotrexate were not a viable long-term option. In the first case, we were unable to taper the SCS dose without symptom relapse, the patient showed only a partial response to methotrexate and presented side effects. The second case never fully responded to the SCS and methotrexate and demonstrated serious SCS adverse effects. Both patients were started on tocilizumab with extremely favourable results, making this drug a potential therapeutic weapon for these patients. The treatment of FE is challenging and mainly based on retrospective reviews, open-label trials and case reports, all of which included a small number of patients.Currently, systemic corticosteroids are the mainstay of treatment; however, other ISDs are frequently necessary.Cases showing a favourable clinical response to tocilizumab have recently been described in patients with corticosteroid-refractory disease, suggesting that this drug may potentially become a therapeutic weapon for these patients.

Identifiants

pubmed: 32309257
doi: 10.12890/2020_001485
pii: 1485-1-11992-1-10-20200225
pmc: PMC7162578
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Pagination

001485

Informations de copyright

© EFIM 2020.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Conflicts of Interests: The Authors declare that there are no competing interests.

Références

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Auteurs

Guiomar Pinheiro (G)

Internal Medicine Department, Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto, Porto, Portugal.

Ana Rita Costa (AR)

Internal Medicine Department, Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto, Porto, Portugal.

Ana Campar (A)

Department of Clinical Immunology, Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto, Porto, Portugal.

Teresa Mendonça (T)

Internal Medicine Department, Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto, Porto, Portugal.

Classifications MeSH