Outcome of patients with juvenile idiopathic arthritis on biological therapy and varicella zoster virus infection

Introducción: En niños inmunocomprometidos, la infección por virus varicela puede produciruna enfermedad grave. Existen pocos casos publicados de varicela en pacientes con artritisidiopática juvenil (AIJ) y terapia biológica.Objetivo: Describir la evolución de pacientes con AIJ con terapia biológica que adquirieron elvirus varicela.Casos clínicos:Se describe la historia clínica de 4 pacientes con AIJ, de entre 3 y 12 años deedad, que presentaron infección por virus varicela zoster estando con distintas terapias bioló-gicas: 2 con anti TNF, uno con anti IL-6 y uno con bloqueador de la coestimulación del linfocitoT. Dos de ellos habían recibido la vacuna contra la varicela. Todos recibieron diferentes terapiasy evolucionaron sin complicaciones, no encontrando diferencias importantes en relación con eltipo de terapia biológica ni con el antecedente de haber sido vacunados. En todos los pacientesse suspendió el tratamiento biológico por al menos 2 semanas y se reinició sin reactivación dela artritis.Conclusiones: En esta serie de pacientes con AIJ tratados con terapia biológica que cursaroncon infección por VVZ no se observaron complicaciones graves.Introduction: Varicella virus infection may evolve into severe disease in immunocompromised children. There are few studies that describe the clinical presentation of varicella infection in patients with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis when on biological therapy. Objective: Describe the outcome of patients diagnosed of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, who acquired a varicella virus infection during treatment with biological therapy. Clinical cases: A description is presented on 4 cases of Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis in children between 3 and 12 years old, who developed a varicella-zoster infection during treatment with different biological therapies. Two patients were under treatment with anti-TNF agents, one treated with Anti IL-6 agent, and one patient a T cell costimulatory blockade agent. Two of them received varicella vaccination prior to the start of biological therapy. All of them received different therapies and had favourable outcome without developing complications. No significant differences were found as regards the type of biological therapy or history of previous vaccination. Biological therapy was suspended for at least 2 weeks in all patients, and was restarted without reactivation of arthritis. Conclusions: No serious complications were observed in this patient series of children with JIA treated with biological therapy associated with VZV infection