Biologic agents in systemic vasculitis.

Advances in the use of biologic agents for the treatment of systemic vasculitis.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Due to the well known toxicities of cyclophosphamide, substantial interest exists in finding other therapies to treat primary systemic vasculitis. Biologic agents have been proposed as an alternative to cyclophosphamide for these disorders because of their recent success in treating other rheumatic diseases. This article reviews the current state-of-the-art therapy with regard...

Biologic Agents for the Treatment of Systemic Vasculitis

The role of biologic therapies in the management of systemic vasculitis.

The recent development of biologic therapies capable of selectively targeting components of the immune system has revolutionised the treatment of inflammatory arthritides. The steady increase in use of biologic agents coupled with the expansion in the knowledge of the pathogenesis of vascular inflammation has led to their application in the treatment of primary systemic vasculitis. These agents...

Biologic therapy in primary systemic vasculitis of the young.

OBJECTIVES To describe the biologic treatment regimens and report the efficacy and safety of biologic therapies in a multicentre series of children with primary systemic vasculitis (PSV). METHODS This was a retrospective descriptive case series of children with PSV treated with biologic therapy between February 2002 and November 2007. Primary retrospective outcome assessment measures were: da...

Therapeutic apheresis in autoimmune diseases

Systemic autoimmune diseases based on an immune pathogenesis produce autoantibodies and circulating immune complexes, which cause inflammation in the tissues of various organs. In most cases, these diseases have a bad prognosis without treatment. Therapeutic apheresis in combination with immunosuppressive therapies has led to a steady increase in survival rates over the last 35 years. Here we p...