Cyclosporin A--a therapeutic alternative in giant-cell arteritis?.

Cyclosporine A (CyA) is an immune modulator that may treat immune diseases. The authors present two cases of temporal arteritis treated with CyA; the two patients improved very quickly and after the first six or eight weeks of treatment there were no clinical or laboratory signs of inflammation. As to adverse effects there was a moderate increase in serum creatinine and arterial pressure levels which were controlled when the CyA dosage was reduced. In view of the good results achieved in these two patients, the authors concluded that CyA may be an alternative therapy for giant-cell arteritis and that this hypothesis should be further investigated in a larger group of patients.