Effectiveness of infliximab in patients with Behçet syndrome and severe uveoretinitis. Report of five cases Eficacia del infliximab en pacientes con síndrome de Behçet portadores de úveo-retinitis grave

The efficacy and safety of repeated administration of infliximab was evaluated in five patients (two men, three women) with Behçet syndrome accompanied by severe uveoretinitis. Ocular and extra ocular inflammation was suppressed in all patients during the observation period without any serious adverse reactions. The results in these patients suggests that TNF-α blockade is effective in patients with severe ocular Behçet syndrome

Role of Azathioprine in steroid resistant non infectious ocular inflammatory diseases Eficacia de la azatioprina en la enfermedad ocular inflamatoria no infecciosa resistente a tratamiento esteroidal sistémico

Background: Topical and systemic steroids are the first line of treatment of non infectious inflammatory ocular disease. Immunosuppresants are reserved as a second line treatment. Aim: To evaluate the role of Azathioprine (AZA) as a coadyuvant immunosuppressive treatment for non infectious ocular inflammatory diseases (OIDs) resistant to systemic steroid therapy in a retrospective, noncomparative interventional case series. Patients and methods: Patients using oral Prednisone due to an active or recurrent OID, without clinical response, and not receiving any other immunosuppressive treatment were studied. A standard protocol of oral Prednisone (0.5 mg/kg/day) and oral AZA (2-3 mg/kg/day) during one year was used. Ocular and systemic monthly evaluations were done including relapse rate, steroid dosage, inflammatory score and visual acuity. Results: Thirty patients (10 male) aged 18-75 years (mean 44 years) were studied. Three had bilateral anterior uveitis, one had pars planitis, four

Comparison of the clinical efficacy of two different immunosuppressive regimens in patients with chronic Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease

Purpose: To prospectively compare 2 immunosupressive regimens in patients with active Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease in spite of systemic glucocorticoid treatment. Methods: Forty-four patients were diagnosed between 1998 and 2005. Twenty-one developed chronic intraocular inflammation in spite of glucocorticoid treatment and were randomized to receive either prednisone and azathioprine (AZA) (n = 12) or prednisone and cyclosporine (CyA) (n = 9). Results: In the AZA group Tyndall score decreased from 1.21±1.10 to 0.29±0.62 (p<.01), and visual acuity (LogMAR) improved from 0.32±0.35 to 0.09±0.16 (p<.001). In the CyA group Tyndall score decreased from 1.67±1.08 to 0.16±0.51 (p<.001), and visual acuity improved from 0.41±0.40 to 0.25±0.42 (p<.001). Patients in the AZA group needed a significantly higher average prednisone dose and total cumulative dose than those in the CyA group, p<.01 for each comparison. Conclusions: Both regimens showed a good clinical efficacy, but CyA seems to be a bet