Original ArticleDifferential Effectiveness of Etanercept and Infliximab in the Treatment of Ocular Inflammation
Section snippets
Materials and Methods
A retrospective analysis was performed on the case records of 22 patients treated with anti–TNF-α therapy at the Cleveland Clinic Cole Eye Institute. Anti–TNF-α medications included infliximab and etanercept. Institutional review board/ethics committee approval was obtained for the study. Data recorded included demographic information (age, gender, and race), ocular and systemic diagnoses, duration and dose of anti–TNF-α treatment, concomitant ocular and systemic immunosuppressive medications,
Results
The charts of 22 patients on anti–TNF-α therapy were reviewed. Our cohort included 20 Caucasian individuals and 2 African Americans, whose ages ranged from 11 to 70 years (37±19) (Table 1). Nineteen patients had an underlying systemic disorder. Comparing patients treated with etanercept with patients treated with infliximab (including and excluding those previously on etanercept), the groups were similar with respect to age, gender, and race (Table 2). The location of inflammation differed
Discussion
The use of anti–TNF-α therapy as an adjuvant in the treatment of refractory uveitis has gained popularity in recent years. Several studies have been published recently examining the effectiveness of therapy on ocular inflammatory disease (Table 4). Treatments of HLA-B27–associated anterior uveitis,2 uveitis and scleritis associated with rheumatic articular disease,1 ocular Behçet’s syndrome,3, 4 refractory posterior uveitis,5, 6 sarcoidosis,7 and uveitis associated with juvenile idiopathic
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Cited by (0)
Manuscript no. 2005-1190.
The authors received no financial support and have no conflict of interest.