Abstract
Purpose: :
To examine the long term safety profile of Infliximab therapy for ocular inflammatory disease in the largest patient population published to date.
Methods: :
This is a single-center, retrospective interventional case series. The charts of 107 patients with noninfectious uveitis treated with infliximab, either as monotherapy or in combination with another immunomodulatory therapy, were reviewed. Primary outcome measure was adverse effects while on infliximab therapy.
Results: :
Infliximab was well tolerated in the 107 patients. The most common adverse effect was gastrointestinal discomfort in 6 patients (nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain or diarrhea), leucopenia in 4 patients, fatigue in 4 patients, rash in 4 patients. These resolved after reducing the dosage of the drug. Two patients had a definitive diagnosis of lupus which required cessation of therapy. One patient had symptoms suggestive of lupus like reaction with joint pain and an ANA titer of 1:160 but negative ssDNA and dsDNA. Regardless, infliximab was stopped in this patient. Thirteen had to stop infliximab due to development of adverse effects.
Conclusions: :
Infliximab was well tolerated has a favorable risk-benefit ratio for the care of patients with vision threatening ocular inflammatory disease.
Keywords: autoimmune disease • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: outcomes/complications • immunomodulation/immunoregulation