The rapid efficacy of abatacept in a patient with rheumatoid vasculitis.

Wataru Fujii, Masataka Kohno, Hidetaka Ishino, Amane Nakabayashi, Kazuki Fujioka, Takashi Kida, Hidetake Nagahara, Ken Murakami, Kaoru Nakamura, Takahiro Seno, Aihiro Yamamoto, Yutaka Kawahito

Inflammation and Immunology, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, 465 Kajii-cho, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto, 602-8566, Japan.

Modern rheumatology / the Japan Rheumatism Association 2012 Aug

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We report a case of rheumatoid vasculitis (RV) that responded well to abatacept, a cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 (CTLA4)-immunoglobulin fusion protein. A 38-year-old woman developed RV despite treatment with methotrexate and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors. The effects of steroid therapy, immunoabsorption plasmapheresis, and interleukin-6 inhibitor were insufficient, however, administration of abatacept rapidly improved her clinical symptoms with almost normalization of the immunological findings. This is the first published case report of the successful treatment of RV with abatacept.

Citation

Wataru Fujii, Masataka Kohno, Hidetaka Ishino, Amane Nakabayashi, Kazuki Fujioka, Takashi Kida, Hidetake Nagahara, Ken Murakami, Kaoru Nakamura, Takahiro Seno, Aihiro Yamamoto, Yutaka Kawahito. The rapid efficacy of abatacept in a patient with rheumatoid vasculitis. Modern rheumatology / the Japan Rheumatism Association. 2012 Aug;22(4):630-4