Rituximab for acute plasma-refractory TTP

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled Rituximab for acute plasma-refractory thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. A case report and concise review of the literature (Swiss Med Wkly. 2007 Sep 22;137(37-38):518-24). Authors are Rüfer A Brodmann D Gregor M et al., from the Division of Haematology, Department of Medicine, Kantonsspital Luzern, Luzern. Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a rare disease which responds well to plasma exchange treatment in the majority of patients. We report on a patient with acute TTP caused by severe autoantibody-mediated ADAMTS-13 deficiency, in whom remission was not achieved by initial treatment consisting of plasma exchange (PE), plasma infusion and corticosteroids, followed by vincristine and splenectomy.In view of the ongoing activity of TTP, treatment was initiated with rituximab, a chimaeric monoclonal antibody directed against the CD 20 antigen present on B lymphocytes.Three weeks after the last infusion of rituximab a complete clinical and laboratory remission of this first episode of acute refractory TTP was documented. To access the full abstract of the article, click here.