Churg-Strauss syndrome and pregnancy

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled “Churg-Strauss syndrome and pregnancy: successful treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin” (J Clin Rheumatol. 2002 Jun;8(3):151-6). Authors are Ruthberg SA, Ward DE and Roth BJ, from the Departments of Internal Medicine and Pathology, Madigan Army Medical Center, USUHS and University of Washington, USA. Churg-Strauss syndrome is an extremely rare disease, and even less common in women of childbearing age. The initial management of Churg-Strauss syndrome consists of high doses of corticosteroids. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) has become a promising, but not completely accepted, form of treatment for systemic vasculitis that is unresponsive to standard therapy. The authors present a case of a woman diagnosed with Churg-Strauss syndrome that was refractory to corticosteroid and cyclophosphamide treatment. When she was found to be 3 months pregnant, treatment with IVIg was instituted with successful results. To access the full abstract of the article, click here.