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Oxford University Press, Rheumatology, 11(61), p. 4427-4436, 2022

DOI: 10.1093/rheumatology/keac097

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Biologic therapy in refractory neurobehçet's disease: A multicentre study of 41 patients and literature review

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Abstract Objectives To assess efficacy and safety of biologic therapy (BT) in neurobehçet’s disease (NBD) refractory to glucocorticoids and at least one conventional immunosuppressive drug. Methods Open-label, national, multicentre study. NBD diagnosis was based on the International Consensus Recommendation criteria. Outcome variables were efficacy and safety. Main efficacy outcome was clinical remission. Other outcome variables analysed were glucocorticoid-sparing effect and improvement in laboratory parameters. Results We studied 41 patients [21 women; age 40.6 (10.8) years]. Neurological damage was parenchymal (n = 33, 80.5%) and non-parenchymal (n = 17, 41.5%). First BTs used were infliximab (n = 19), adalimumab (n = 14), golimumab (n = 3), tocilizumab (n = 3) and etanercept (n = 2). After 6 months of BT, neurological remission was complete (n = 23, 56.1%), partial (n = 15, 37.6%) and no response (n = 3, 7.3%). In addition, median (IQR) dose of oral prednisone decreased from 60 (30–60) mg/day at the initial visit to 5 (3.8–10) mg/day after 6 months (P < 0.001). It was also the case for mean erythrocyte sedimentation rate [31.5 (25.6)–15.3 (11.9) mm/1st h, P = 0.011] and median (IQR) C-reactive protein [1.4 (0.2–12.8) to 0.3 (0.1–3) mg/dl, P = 0.001]. After a mean follow-up of 57.5 months, partial or complete neurological remission persisted in 37 patients (90.2%). BT was switched in 22 cases (53.6%) due to inefficacy (n = 16) or adverse events (AEs) (n = 6) and discontinued due to complete prolonged remission (n = 3) or severe AE (n = 1). Serious AEs were observed in two patients under infliximab treatment. Conclusions BT appears to be effective and relatively safe in refractory NBD.