We report the case of a 48-year-old, leukodermic female diagnosed with ulcerative proctitis for 4 years and latent tuberculosis. She was allergic to salicylates and had a minor allergic reaction to infliximab (rash, vertigo, and headache). Thereafter, she started azathioprine (2.5 mg/kg/day). She maintained intravenous infliximab, together with prophylaxis with clemastine and hydrocortisone, du...

BACKGROUND Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is an important cytokine in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Anti-TNF antibodies have been successfully implemented in IBD therapy, however their efficacies differ among IBD patients. Here we investigate the influence of CD64 Fc receptor on the inhibitory activity of anti-TNFs in cells of intestinal wall. METHODS Intestinal cell line...

CASE REPORT We report the case of a 76-year-old woman who attended our hospital because of a sudden loss of visual acuity in her left eye. The problem appeared to be that of retrobulbar optic neuritis. However, the age of the patient together with the simultaneous use of Infliximab to treat her rheumatoid arthritis, suggests the demyelination may have been associated with the Infliximab use. ...

Infliximab is a monoclonal antibody that antagonizes the activity of tumor necrosis factor alpha to induce and maintain remission in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. Adverse effects associated with Infliximab infusions include infusion reactions, risk of infections, development of hematological malignancies, and pancytopenia. Autoimmune hemolytic anemia has rarely been reported in ulce...

This study is a prospective, randomized, double-blind study to compare the efficacy and safety of 10 mg/kg infliximab with those of 3 mg/kg infliximab treatment in methotrexate-refractory rheumatoid arthritis patients. After the patients received 3 mg/kg infliximab infusion at weeks 0, 2, and 6, they were randomly assigned to be administered 3, 6 or 10 mg/kg infliximab every 8 weeks from week 1...

Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) is an inflammatory cytokine that has been implicated in a variety of rheumatic and inflammatory diseases. New understanding of the importance of TNF-alpha in the pathophysiology of rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease led to the development of a new class of targeted anti-TNF therapies. Anti-TNF-alpha agents including etanercept (a fusion protein of t...

The relationship between the use of tumor necrosis factor antagonists and onset of granulomatous infection was examined using data collected through the Adverse Event Reporting System of the US Food and Drug Administration for January 1998-September 2002. Granulomatous infections were reported at rates of approximately 239 per 100,000 patients who received infliximab and approximately 74 per 10...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the regulatory effect of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) blockade with infliximab on the distribution of peripheral blood monocyte subpopulations in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and ankylosing spondylitis (AS). METHODS Purified CD11b+CD14+ monocytes from 5 patients with RA and 5 AS were analysed ex vivo before and after infliximab treatment by flow cytometry f...

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy and safety of infliximab for the treatment of psoriasis in a meta-analysis framework. METHODS Data were extracted by searching the EMBASE (1974-2014), PubMed(1966-2014) and the Cochrane library2013.4th databases. Only randomized and placebo-controlled studies were selected in this study. RESULTS Statistically significant differences in efficacy were found fo...

OBJECTIVES Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been used to determine the outcome in malignancies and coronary heart disease. Some reports considered the value of NLR as a predictor of response to infliximab in patients with Crohn's disease or rheumatoid arthritis; however, no similar studies have been reported for ulcerative colitis (UC). This study aimed to evaluate the clinical signific...