Giant cell arteritis, infections and biologics

Epidemiological studies showing an increased incidence of systemic vasculitis in people infected with a particular agent, while not wholly definitive, may strengthen the infection-induced autoimmunity concept. 1 In the impressive nested case-control study recently published in the Annals of the Rheu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAnnals of the rheumatic diseases Vol. 76; no. 9; p. e29
Main Authors Moiseev, Sergey, Novikov, Pavel, Smitienko, Ilya, Shchegoleva, Elena
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England BMJ Publishing Group LTD 01.09.2017
Subjects
Antigens
Arteritis
Atherosclerosis
Autoimmune diseases
Autoimmunity
Biological products
Chicken pox
Clinical trials
Corticosteroids
Drug dosages
Health risk assessment
Hepatitis
Hypotheses
Immunotherapy
Infections
Pathogenesis
Pathogens
Rheumatoid arthritis
Vein & artery diseases
Veins & arteries
Systemic vasculitis
Infections
Giant Cell Arteritis
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Summary:Epidemiological studies showing an increased incidence of systemic vasculitis in people infected with a particular agent, while not wholly definitive, may strengthen the infection-induced autoimmunity concept. 1 In the impressive nested case-control study recently published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, 2 Rhee et al examined the relationship between any infection or herpes zoster infection and the development of giant cell arteritis (GCA) in a large cohort of patients (n=4559) and controls (n=22 759). [...]proof-of-concept trial may be justified to study whether antiviral treatment with acyclovir or valacyclovir confers additional benefit to patients with GCA receiving corticosteroids. Biological agents have different mechanisms of action and safety profiles. [...]it would be a mistake to assume that all of them increase the risk of infections compared with standard treatment.
Bibliography:SourceType-Other Sources-1
content type line 63
ObjectType-Correspondence-1
ObjectType-Commentary-2
ISSN:0003-4967
1468-2060
DOI:10.1136/annrheumdis-2016-210955