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Rituximab‐based immunosuppression for autoimmune haemolytic anaemia in infants

2009; Wiley; Volume: 145; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1365-2141.2009.07594.x

1365-2141

Johanna Svahn, Francesca Fioredda, Michaela Calvillo, Angelo Claudio Molinari, Concetta Micalizzi, Laura Banov, Madalina Schmidt, Daniela Caprino, Doretta Marinelli, D. Gallisai, Carlo Dufour,

Blood disorders and treatments

We report a case series of four infants with severe autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (AIHA) who responded to treatment with rituximab and cyclosporine after having failed first line therapy with high-dose steroid (prednisolone 4-8 mg/kg/d). Rituximab was started at 11-90 d from onset due to continued haemolysis; three infants also received cyclosporine A. Three of four infants reached complete response, defined as normal haemoglobin, reticulocytes and negative indices of haemolysis, at 7-21 months from diagnosis. In long-term follow-up two infants remained disease-free with normal immunology, one had undefined immunodeficiency and one had autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome.