Arbrile M, Radin M, Rossi D, Menegatti E, Baldovino S, Sciascia S, Roccatello D. Vedolizumab for the Management of Refractory Behçet's Disease: From a Case Report to New Pieces of Mosaic in a Complex Disease.
Front Immunol 2021;
12:769785. [PMID:
34759935 PMCID:
PMC8573273 DOI:
10.3389/fimmu.2021.769785]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/02/2021] [Accepted: 10/04/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Objectives
When treating Behçet’s disease (BD), anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α agents have become a second-line therapy when conventional immunosuppressive drugs have failed. However, in the case of failure of treatment with anti-TNFα drugs, further options are limited. Based on previous reports of the efficacy of vedolizumab (VDZ) in inflammatory bowel diseases, we decided to administer VDZ to treat a patient with intestinal BD.
Methods
We present the case of a 49-year-old female patient with BD. Her clinical manifestations included erythema nodosum, oro-genital ulcers, positive Pathergy test, positive HLA-B51, and biopsy-proven intestinal BD. The patient was unsuccessfully treated with conventional immunosuppressive and several biological agents.
Results
Treatment with VDZ was started intravenously at a dose of 300 mg at 0, 2, and 6 weeks and then every 4 weeks.
After the second dose of VDZ, the patient reported a marked improvement of intestinal BD and a concomitant amelioration of arthralgia, erythema nodosum lesions and aphthosis. Clinical remission was achieved at 6 months after starting VDZ.
Conclusion
VDZ might represent a valid option to treat patients with BD who are non-responsive to standard treatments or anti-TNFα agents, particularly, those cases with intestinal involvement.
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