Treatment of primary Sjögren syndrome with rituximab: extended follow-up, safety and efficacy of retreatment

J M Meijer¹, J Pijpe¹, A Vissink¹, C G M Kallenberg², H Bootsma²

¹ Departments of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
² Departments of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Correspondence to:
J M Meijer, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, PO-Box 30.001, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands; j.m.meijer@kchir.umcg.nl

Accepted 9 April 2008

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

We previously reported that B cell depletion therapy with rituximab (4 weekly infusions of 375 mg/m², premedication: 25 mg prednisolone intravenously) in eight patients with early primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS) and seven patients with mucosa-associated lymphatic tissue (MALT)/pSS was effective in reducing subjective and objective symptoms after 12 weeks of follow-up.¹ Three patients with early pSS developed serum sickness-like disease, of whom one patient declined to further participate. The MALT component of six of the seven patients with MALT/pSS was initially effectively treated with rituximab, one of these six patients was successfully retreated 9 months after the first treatment and all six patients are still in remission of MALT >2 years after treatment. Therefore, we focused the present work on the extended follow-up and retreatment of the patients with early pSS. For seven of the eight patients with early pSS, 48-week follow-up data were available. In addition, five patients, . . . [Full text of this article]

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