Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Rituximab therapy for refractory systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis
  1. J Narváez1,
  2. C Díaz-Torné2,
  3. X Juanola1,
  4. C Geli2,
  5. J M Llobet2,
  6. J M Nolla1,
  7. C Díaz-López2
  1. 1
    Department of Rheumatology, Hospital Universitario de Bellvitge–IDIBELL, Barcelona, Spain
  2. 2
    Department of Rheumatology, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Barcelona, Spain
  1. Dr F J Narváez García, Department of Rheumatology (planta 10–2), Hospital Universitario de Bellvitge, Feixa Llarga s/n 08907, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; 31577edd{at}comb.es

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Systemic-onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis (SOJIA), formerly called Still’s disease, is a subset of juvenile arthritis that describes patients with fever, rash, arthritis, serositis and visceromegaly. In up to 30% of cases the disease has a chronic course and management requires high doses of glucocorticoids, disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD), tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) inhibitors or anakinra.16 However, this therapeutic arsenal is unable to control the disease in all patients.

Recently, rituximab, a chimeric anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, has been successfully used in two patients with refractory adult-onset Still’s disease.7 As the similarity of clinical and laboratory features present in SOJIA and adult-onset Still’s disease implies that these conditions have similar …

View Full Text

Footnotes

  • Competing interests: None.

  • Ethics approval: Ethics approval was obtained.

  • Patient consent: Obtained.