Adalimumab for sight-threatening uveitis in Behçet’s disease. B Mushtaq1, T Saeed1, R D Situnayake2 and P I Murray1 UK. 2005.Treatment with infliximab requires attendance at outpatients’ clinics to receive the infusions. This paper presents case studies of three Behcet’s patients with sight threatening pan uveitis. Following repeated attacks of inflammation and treatment with the more commonly used agents, the patients received treatment with infliximab, which placed their disease into remission and improved their visual acuity. All three patients were successfully switched to adalimumab injections fortnightly and their disease remained in remission. The case studies show the beneficial effects on vision being provided by biologic agents.
(One of the problems with infliximab is that patients frequently develop anti bodies to it, sometimes after only three infusions. Switching to adalimumab, once infliximab has placed the disease into remission, overcomes this problem.)
Anti-TNF- therapy for sight threatening uveitis. E W Lindstedt, G S Baarsma, R W A M Kuijpers, and P M van Hagen. Netherlands. 2005. This paper describes the use of infliximab in 13 patients (one with Birdshot) with sight threatening uveitis. Ocular inflammation was suppressed, with eleven patients having improved or stable visual acuity. The table giving the results includes visual acuity gains and some of these are startling. The authors comment that some of these eyes already had irreversible damage and that stable vision in such cases is an indicator of successful treatment. The one Birdshot patient developed a rash and had to stop treatment after the first infusion. The paper gives the varying lengths of time taken for the effects of infliximab to be seen – from six days to two months.
