Abstract
Despite high-dose corticosteroids alone or with immunosuppressive agents as the standard therapy in lupus myocarditis (LM), an immune complex-mediated critical setting, such management is still associated with resistant disease and even mortality. A retrospective study was performed for the refractory LM patients treated with rituximab (RTX), a very limited experience in English literatures. A retrospective review of the myocarditis manifestation was carried out in hospitalized Han Chinese patients with SLE from February 2007 to January 2017. This study analyzed lupus patients who met the diagnosis of LM for their demographic, clinical, laboratory, and radiological data including cardiac magnetic resonance imaging and echocardiography as well as the medication profiles. Among 802 SLE patients, 13 female (1.6%) aged 19 to 52 years (31.9 ± 10.7), fulfilled the LM diagnostic criteria. Under the indications of LM or multi-organic flares with myocarditis refractory to the conventional therapy, three cases received the RTX therapy. All had improved myocardial function as demonstrated by clinical and imaging presentations as well as a decrease in lupus activity. In this 10-year retrospective monocentric cohort, improved myocardial function is demonstrated in refractory LM patients receiving the RTX therapy.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Doria A, Iaccarino L, Sarzi-Puttini P, Atzeni F, Turriel M, Petri M (2005) Cardiac involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus. Lupus 14(9):683–686. https://doi.org/10.1191/0961203305lu2200oa
Chen J, Tang Y, Zhu M, Xu A (2016) Heart involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus: a systemic review and meta-analysis. Clin Rheumatol 35:2437–2448
Miner JJ, Kim AH (2014) Cardiac manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus. Rheum Dis Clin N Am 40(1):51–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rdc.2013.10.003
Apte M, Jr MGG, Vilá LM, Kaslow RA, Alarcón GS, Reveille JD, LUMINA Study Group (2008) Associated factors and impact of myocarditis in patients with SLE from LUMINA, a multiethnic US cohort. Rheumatology 47:362–367
Zawadowski GM, Klarich KW, Moder KG, Edwards WD, Cooper LT Jr (2012) A contemporary case series of lupus myocarditis. Lupus 21(13):1378–1384. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961203312456752
Thomas G, Cohen Aubart F, Chiche L, et al (2017) Lupus myocarditis: initial presentation and long term outcomes in a multicentric series of 29 patients. J Rheumatol44:24–32
Hahn BH, McMathon MA, Wilkinson A et al (2012) American College of Rheumatology Guidelines for screening, treatment, and management of lupus nephritis. Arthritis Care Res 64:797–808
Bertsias GK, Tektonidou M, Amoura Z, Aringer M, Bajema I, Berden JH, Boletis J, Cervera R, Dörner T, Doria A, Ferrario F, Floege J, Houssiau FA, Ioannidis JP, Isenberg da, Kallenberg CG, Lightstone L, Marks SD, Martini A, Moroni G, Neumann I, Praga M, Schneider M, Starra A, Tesar V, Vasconcelos C, van Vollenhoven RF, Zakharova H, Haubitz M, Gordon C, Jayne D, Boumpas DT, European League Against Rheumatism and European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association. (2012) Joint European League Against Rheumatism and European Renal Association–European Dialysis and Transplant Association recommendations for the management of adult and paediatric lupus nephritis. Ann Rheum Dis 71:1771–1782, 11, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/annrheumdis-2012-201940
Hochberg MC (1997) Updating the American College of Rheumatology revised criteria for the classification of systemic lupus erythematosus. Arthritis Rheum 40(9):1725. https://doi.org/10.1002/art.1780400928
Caforio AL, Pankuweit S, Arbustini E, Basso C, Gimeno-Blanes J, Felix SB, Fu M, Heliö T, Heymans S, Jahns R, Klingel K, Linhart A, Maisch B, McKenna W, Mogensen J, Pinto YM, Ristic A, Schultheiss HP, Seggewiss H, Tavazzi L, Thiene G, Yilmaz A, Charron P, Elliott PM, European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases (2013) Current state of knowledge on etiology, diagnosis, management, and therapy of myocarditis: a position statement of the European Society of Cardiology Working Group on Myocardial and Pericardial Diseases. Eur Heart J 34(33):2636–2648. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/eht210
Gladman DD, Ibañez D, Urowitz MB (2002) Systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index 2000. J Rheumatol 2002:288–291
Mavrogeni SI, Sfikakis PP, Kitas GD, Kolovou G, Tektonidou MG (2016) Cardiac involvement in antiphospholipid syndrome: the diagnostic role of noninvasive cardiac imaging. Semin Arthritis Rheum 45(5):611–616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semarthrit.2015.09.005
Ramos-Casals M, Soto MJ, Cuadrado MJ, Khamashta MA (2009) Rituximab in systemic lupus erythematosus: a systematic review of off-label use in 188 cases. Lupus 18(9):767–776. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961203309106174
Aggarwal P, Singh S, Suri D, Rawat A, Narula N, ManojKumar R (2012) Rituximab in childhood lupus myocarditis. Rheumatol Int 32:1843–1844
Du Toit R, Herbst PG, van Rensburg A, du Plessis LM, Reuter H, Doubell AF (2017) Clinical features and outcome of lupus myocarditis in the Western Cape, South Africa. Lupus 26(1):38–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961203316651741
Zhang L, Zhu YL, Li MT, Gao N, You X, Wu QJ, Su JM, Shen M, Zhao LD, Liu JJ, Zhang FC, Zhao Y, Zeng XF (2015) Lupus myocarditis: a case-control study from China. Chin Med J 128(19):2588–2594. https://doi.org/10.4103/0366-6999.166029
Bidani AK, Roberts JL, Schwartz MM, Lewis EJ (1980) Immunopathology of cardiac lesions in fatal systemic lupus erythematosus. Am J Med 69(6):849–858. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-9343(80)80010-6
Ye Y, Qian J, Gu Y, Chen X, Ye S (2011) Rituximab in the treatment of severe lupus myelopathy. Clin Rheumatol 30:981–986
Cobo-Ibáñez T, Loza-Santamaría E, Pego-Reigosa JM, Marqués AO, Rúa-Figueroa Í, Fernández-Nebro A, Cáliz RC, López Longo FJ, Muñoz-Fernández S (2014) Efficacy and safety of rituximab in the treatment of non-renal systemic lupus erythematosus: a systematic review. Semin Arthritis Rheum 44(2):175–185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semarthrit.2014.04.002
Wang CR, Liu MF (2016) Rituximab usage in systemic lupus erythematosus-associated antiphospholipid syndrome: a single-center experience. Semin Arthritis Rheum 46(1):102–108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.semarthrit.2016.02.002
Acknowledgments
The authors are indebted to Dr. Ming-Fei Liu and other physicians as well as nurses who were involved in the management of reported patients at the Internal Medicine Department of NCKUH.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Disclosure
None.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, CR., Tsai, YS. & Li, WT. Lupus myocarditis receiving the rituximab therapy—a monocentric retrospective study. Clin Rheumatol 37, 1701–1707 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-017-3971-4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-017-3971-4