Introduction
Microscopic polyangitiis is characterized by anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA) and small vessel vasculitis. The diseases usually respond to cyclophosphamide (Cyc) but some patients are therapy resistant. Rituximab (RIT) is a chimeric antibody to CD20 causing lysis of B-lymphocytes and used for treatment of lymphomas. RIT has also been successfully used in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), idiopathic thromobocytopaenic purpura, autoimmune haemolytic anaemia, cold agglutinin disease, systemic lupus erythematosus and vasculitides.
Case report
A 16-year old female patient with hemoptysis, nephritis, dermatitis was diagnosed as a myeloperoxidase-ANCApositive microscopic polyangiitis. The patient was resistant to conventional therapy or had relapsed repeatedly after cessation of cyclophosphamide (Cyc). The patient was treated with intravenous infusions of rituximab (RIT).
Anzeige
Conclusion
RIT seems promising and safe in pediatric microscopic polyangiitis. Controlled studies should be conducted.
Open AccessThis article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.