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Long-term outcomes of infliximab in patients with Behçet's disease-associated uveitis

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Abstract

Objectives

To evaluate long-term outcomes of infliximab (IFX) treatment in patients with Behçet's disease (BD)-associated uveitis.

Patients and methods

We retrospectively analyzed the cases of patients with BD-associated uveitis treated with IFX for > 5 years. We compared the numbers of ocular inflammatory attacks, ocular disease activities, and visual acuity before and after the initiation of IFX treatment.

Results

The 24 patients were 20 men and 4 women. Their mean age at the initiation of IFX treatment was 37.3 ± 9.2 years. The mean term from the initiation of IFX treatment was 10.3 ± 2.4 years. The average number of ocular inflammatory attacks was 5.4 ± 2.1 per 12 months before the IFX treatment and significantly lower at 0.83 ± 0.96 per 12 months after the initiation of IFX treatment (p < 0.05). We used a scoring system for BD-associated uveitis named the Behçet's disease ocular attack score 24 (BOS24) to estimate the changes in ocular disease activities between before and after initiation of IFX treatment. The average score decreased significantly from 7.58 ± 2.77 to 2.55 ± 2.74 after the initiation of IFX treatment (p < 0.05). Even after > 5 years of the treatment, both the number of ocular attacks and the BOS24 score kept decreasing. The visual acuity in 42 of 48 eyes (24 patients) was improved or maintained.

Conclusions

IFX was effective for controlling ocular inflammatory attacks and diminishing ocular disease activities in patients with BD-associated uveitis, and it maintained the patients' visual acuity.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ophthalmology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, 3-1-1 Maidashi, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-8582, Japan

    Satoshi Yamana, Eiichi Hasegawa, Atsunobu Takeda, Nobuyo Yawata & Koh-Hei Sonoda

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  1. Satoshi Yamana
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  2. Eiichi Hasegawa
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  3. Atsunobu Takeda
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  4. Nobuyo Yawata
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  5. Koh-Hei Sonoda
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Eiichi Hasegawa.

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The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

Ethical approval

Approval was obtained from the ethics committee of Kyushu University. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Nonapplicable due to the retrospective design.

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Yamana, S., Hasegawa, E., Takeda, A. et al. Long-term outcomes of infliximab in patients with Behçet's disease-associated uveitis. Int Ophthalmol 43, 937–944 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-022-02495-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10792-022-02495-z

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