Schnitzler’s syndrome

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled “Schnitzler’s syndrome treated successfully with intravenous pulse cyclophosphamide” (Scand J Rheumatol. 2005 Jul-Aug;34(4):328-30). Authors are Peterlana D, Puccetti A, Tinazzi E et al. from the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Internal Medicine, University of Verona, Italy. Schnitzler’s syndrome is a rare clinical condition characterized by chronic urticaria, intermittent fever, bone pain, arthralgia or arthritis, and monoclonal immunoglobulin M (IgM) gammopathy. The authors describe a case of a 48-year-old Italian female with a long history of arthralgia, leucocytosis, spiking fever and chronic urticaria with severe pruritus. The IgM-kappa monoclonal component in the serum and bone densification were detected 4 years after the onset of the symptoms. After many ineffective treatments, the use of pulse cyclophosphamide (CPX) resulted in complete remission of the disease that is still lasting after a 2-year follow-up. To access the abstract of the article, click here.