Infliximab efficiency and failure

[...]it seems to me that one cannot define GCA as a self limiting disease, unlike polymyalgia rheumatica, as it may have an occult and long term course with a risk of progressive vessel and target organ damage. [...]the design of our trial precluded the use of MTX because our purpose was to investig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of the rheumatic diseases 2004-06, Vol.63 (6), p.751-2; author reply 752
Main Author: Rozin, A P
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antibodies, Monoclonal - therapeutic use
antichimeric antibodies
Antirheumatic Agents - therapeutic use
Drug dosages
Efficiency
Enbrel
Gangrene
giant cell arteritis
Giant Cell Arteritis - drug therapy
Humans
Immunoglobulins
Infliximab
Long term
Matters Arising
methotrexate
Studies
Treatment Outcome
Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - immunology
Tumor necrosis factor-TNF
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Summary:[...]it seems to me that one cannot define GCA as a self limiting disease, unlike polymyalgia rheumatica, as it may have an occult and long term course with a risk of progressive vessel and target organ damage. [...]the design of our trial precluded the use of MTX because our purpose was to investigate the effectiveness of infliximab alone in GCA, and MTX has been used, albeit with questionable results, in the treatment of this disease, mainly as a steroid sparing agent. 2 Secondly, we employed the usual therapeutic regimen with 3 mg/kg body weight of infliximab empirically, and after the initial impressive response of our patients to that dose we continued with it.
ISSN:0003-4967
1468-2060