Treatment with rituximab for thrombocytopenia due to systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract Some patients with thrombocytopenia due SLE fail to respond to conventional therapies. Rituximab has been reported to be an alternative for patient treatment. Objective To evaluate the response of thrombocytopenia due to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus to the use of Rituximab and patient relapse time at our hospital. Patients and methods We analyzed patients with SLE than received a 2 gram rituximab treatment for thrombocytopenia. We analyzed the rate of patients that achieved complete remission (CR), defined as a platelet count over 100 mil/mm3, partial remission (PR) described as platelets within 50–100 mil/mm3 and no response (NR) if platelets remained unchanged and the time the remission was sustained. Results Sixteen treatments were applied to 13 patients, aged 28 ± 9 years of age and SLE mean duration time of 68 ± 44 months with a mean platelet count of 38 ± 29 mil. In 14 treatments (87%) remission was achieved after 5 ± 2 weeks where 2 patients (12.5%) were non respondent. One of them died due to a massive hemorrhage. The mean response time without relapse was 15.6 ± 6 months. Follow up of three patients was not possible and 3 other died due to infections. Conclusions Rituximab is an alternative for treatment of thrombocytopenia due to Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.