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CC BY 4.0 · TH Open 2023; 07(03): e191-e194
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1770784
Letter to the Editor

The Effect of Rituximab on Antiphospholipid Titers in Patients with Antiphospholipid Syndrome

Kimberley Youkhana 
1   Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
,
Hilary Heiling
2   Department of Biostatistics, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
,
Allison Deal
2   Department of Biostatistics, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
,
Stephan Moll
1   Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
› Author Affiliations Funding K.Y. is supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institute of Health grant T32HL007149-44.
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Background

Rituximab in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is mostly used for treating noncriteria APS manifestations such as thrombocytopenia, and is not a first- or second-line treatment for management of thrombosis. However, at times rituximab is used empirically as adjunct treatment in patients with recurrent thrombosis occurring in spite of anticoagulant therapy (i.e., anticoagulation failure) when combinations of increased anticoagulation intensity, addition of antiplatelet therapy, and reduction of all thrombotic risk factors fail to prevent recurrent thrombosis.[1] [2] Knowledge of its effect on the naturally fluctuating antiphospholipid antibody (APLA) titers is, however, limited. We sought to determine the effect of rituximab on decreasing the magnitude and type of APLA in patients with thrombotic APS.

Author Contribution

K.Y. designed the study, collected the data, and was involved in the data analysis, and wrote the manuscript. S.M. designed the study and oversaw the manuscript, data collection, and analysis and manuscript writing.

H.H. performed the statistical analysis; A.D. oversaw the statistical analysis.




Publication History

Received: 13 January 2023

Accepted: 21 April 2023

Article published online:
05 July 2023

© 2023. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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