Scientific corner

Case report: Successful treatment of acute generalized pustular psoriasis with multiple comorbidities with oral tacrolimus

Mingdan Zhao, Fujun Huang, Lei Tang, Xun Zhou,Miao Zhang, Mengxue Liao,Lirong Liu,Mengya Huang, Front. Immunol. 2024, 15,doi.org=10.3389/fimmu.2024.1354578

Acute generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP) is a serious illness. Despite various treatment methods, there is still lack of effective treatment plans for refractory cases with multiple comorbidities. This case report presents a 67-year-old woman with acute GPP, stage 4 chronic kidney disease (CKD), type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, in whom skin symptom disappearance and kidney function improvement were observed after the use of oral tacrolimus as the sole therapy. This is the first report on the application of tacrolimus in the treatment of acute GPP, especially refractory acute GPP. The successful treatment indicates that there are shared immune pathways between acute GPP and CKD, and the pathways can be interdicted by tacrolimus. Further studies are needed to optimize the therapy to maximize efficacy and minimize toxicity.

Scientific corner

Pyoderma gangrenosum in ulcerative colitis patient treated with vedolizumab: adsorptive granulocyte/monocyte apheresis as a new therapeutic option refractory cases – a case report and literature review

Mauro Mastronardi, Elisabetta Cavalcanti, Nunzia Labarile, Raffaele Armentano, Francesco Gabriele, Margherita Curlo, Therapeutic Advances in Chronic Disease. 2023;14. doi:10.1177/20406223231194190

Extraintestinal manifestations occur rather frequently in ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease patients and are usually related to an exacerbation of the underlying intestinal bowel disease but sometimes may run a course independent of the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). About one-third of patients with IBD develop extraintestinal manifestations, such as pyoderma gangrenosum (PG). PG is an uncommon inflammatory skin disorder of unknown pathogenesis. There are no specific serological or histological markers, and diagnosis is predominantly clinical. Topical and systemic therapies are both vital aspects of treatment and immune modulators have been used with increasing success in recent years, although immunosuppressive drugs raise some concerns due to an increased risk of serious and opportunistic infections and cancer, particularly in elderly and comorbid patients, underlining the unmet need for safer alternative therapies. Thus, in this case report, we highlighted an adsorptive granulocyte/monocyte apheresis (GMA) as a new therapeutic possibility in IBD patients with extraintestinal manifestations. We report a case of a 60-year woman with a history of UC with a Mayo grade 3 score which was associated with a PG. Given that the patients maintained clinical remission with vedolizumab, we preferred not to perform a combined treatment with other antitumor necrosis factor-alpha or ciclosporin, thus avoiding an increased risk of serious infections in the patient. Therefore, we performed the extracorporeal leukocyte apheresis. The patient progressed favorably, with progressive improvement of skin and bowel disease. Therefore, adsorptive GMA has a very favorable safety profile and has been confirmed in numerous studies. In this study, we underlined that an intensive regimen of GMA paves the way to an ideal option for patients with severe and refractory PG complicated with UC.

Scientific corner

Pyoderma gangrenosum in ulcerative colitis patient treated with vedolizumab: adsorptive granulocyte/monocyte apheresis as a new therapeutic option refractory cases – a case report and literature review

Mauro Mastronardi 1, Elisabetta Cavalcanti 2, Nunzia Labarile 1, Raffaele Armentano 3, Francesco Gabriele 4, Margherita Curlo 1 Ther Adv Chronic Dis. 2023 Nov 3:14:20406223231194190. doi: 10.1177/20406223231194190.

Extraintestinal manifestations occur rather frequently in ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease patients and are usually related to an exacerbation of the underlying intestinal bowel disease but sometimes may run a course independent of the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). About one-third of patients with IBD develop extraintestinal manifestations, such as pyoderma gangrenosum (PG). PG is an uncommon inflammatory skin disorder of unknown pathogenesis. There are no specific serological or histological markers, and diagnosis is predominantly clinical. Topical and systemic therapies are both vital aspects of treatment and immune modulators have been used with increasing success in recent years, although immunosuppressive drugs raise some concerns due to an increased risk of serious and opportunistic infections and cancer, particularly in elderly and comorbid patients, underlining the unmet need for safer alternative therapies. Thus, in this case report, we highlighted an adsorptive granulocyte/monocyte apheresis (GMA) as a new therapeutic possibility in IBD patients with extraintestinal manifestations. We report a case of a 60-year woman with a history of UC with a Mayo grade 3 score which was associated with a PG. Given that the patients maintained clinical remission with vedolizumab, we preferred not to perform a combined treatment with other antitumor necrosis factor-alpha or ciclosporin, thus avoiding an increased risk of serious infections in the patient. Therefore, we performed the extracorporeal leukocyte apheresis. The patient progressed favorably, with progressive improvement of skin and bowel disease. Therefore, adsorptive GMA has a very favorable safety profile and has been confirmed in numerous studies. In this study, we underlined that an intensive regimen of GMA paves the way to an ideal option for patients with severe and refractory PG complicated with UC.

Scientific corner

Use of granulocyte/monocytapheresis in ulcerative colitis: A practical review from a European perspective

Eugeni DomènechJoan-Ramon GrífolsAyesha Akbar, and Axel U Dignass World J Gastroenterol. 2021 Mar 14; 27(10): 908–918.

GMA is the only available therapy for UC directly targeting neutrophils. Two controlled, multicentre, European studies and a number of recent cases series found a potential therapeutic benefit of GMA in different clinical scenarios of UC with a still unmet need for optimal treatment. Moreover, GMA has an excellent safety profile and is perceived as a convenient procedure by patients, making this non-pharmacological therapy a suitable alternative or add-on therapy in UC, particularly for frail or comorbid patients.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7968132/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7968132/pdf/WJG-27-908.pdf

Scientific corner

Safety and effectiveness of granulocyte and monocyte adsorptive apheresis in patients with inflammatory bowel disease in special situations: a multicentre cohort study.

Satoshi Motoya 1Hiroki Tanaka 2Tomoyoshi Shibuya 3Taro Osada 4Takayuki Yamamoto 5Hitoshi Hongo 6Chiemi Mizuno 7Daisuke Saito 8Nobuo Aoyama 9Toshihisa Kobayashi 10Hiroaki Ito 11Satoshi Tanida 12Masanori Nojima 13Seiichiro Kokuma 14Eiji Hosoi 14 , BMC Gastroenterol 2019 Nov 21;19(1):196.

Background: The available information on granulocyte and monocyte adsorptive apheresis (GMA) in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) under special situations remains unclear. We conducted a retrospective, multicentre cohort study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of GMA in patients with IBD under special situations.

Methods: This study included patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn’s disease who had at least one special situation feature and who had received GMA between November 2013 and March 2017. The incidence of adverse events (AEs) was compared in relation to the special situation, and patient background factors related to an AE were identified. For patients with UC, clinical remission was defined as a partial Mayo score of ≤2.

Results: A total of 437 patients were included in this study. The incidence of AEs among the elderly patients (11.2%) was similar in all patients (11.4%), whereas the incidences of AEs in patients on multiple immunosuppressant medications (15.2%), patients with anaemia (18.1%) and paediatric/adolescent patients (18.9%) were higher than that in all patients (11.4%). In multivariate analysis, anaemia and concomitant immunosuppressant medications were independently associated with the incidence of AEs. Clinical remission was achieved in 46.4% of the patients with UC.

Conclusions: The incidence of AEs in the elderly patients was not higher than that in all patients, whereas the incidence of AE was higher in patients with anaemia and those on multiple immunosuppressant medications than that in all patients. GMA is a safe treatment option in elderly patients with IBD.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31752695/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6873503/pdf/12876_2019_Article_1110.pdf

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