About this Medicine article

Extracorporeal photopheresis for the treatment of refractory Crohn's disease: Results of an open-label pilot study by Maria T. Abreu; Christian von Tirpitz; Robert Hardi; Martin Kaatz; Gert Van Assche; Paul Rutgeerts; Emil Bisaccia; Sergi Goerdt; Stephen Hanauer; Robert Knobler; Peter Mannon; Lloyd Mayer; Thomas Ochsenkuhn; William J. Sandborn; Dennis Parenti; Kevin Lee; Walter Reinisch is a Medicine article available to read on EtoBox.

## Background: Extracorporeal photopheresis (ecp) is effective in immune-mediated disorders. a prospective, uncontrolled pilot study was conducted to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ecp in patients with active crohn's disease (cd) who were refractory to or intolerant of immunosuppressants and/or anti-tnf therapies. ## Methods: Patients with moderate-to-severely active cd (crohn's disease activity index [cdai] 220-450 points) underwent 12 weeks of ecp treatment (weeks 1-4: twice weekly, every week; weeks 5-12: twice weekly, every other week). clinical response was defined as a decrease in the cdai of >or=100 points or remission (cdai <150 points) at week 12. patients who responded at week 12 could receive an additional 12 weeks of ecp treatment (twice weekly, every other week) in an extension study. ## Results: Twenty-eight patients were enrolled with a mean baseline cdai score of 314 (range 207-457). at week 12, 14 patients (50%) responded; 13 patients responded within 6 weeks. seven patients (25%) attained remission by week 12. three of 5 patients with open fistulae at baseline had fistula closure. response was similar among patients naïve to anti-tnf agents and patients who h

Author

Maria T. Abreu; Christian von Tirpitz; Robert Hardi; Martin Kaatz; Gert Van Assche; Paul Rutgeerts; Emil Bisaccia; Sergi Goerdt; Stephen Hanauer; Robert Knobler; Peter Mannon; Lloyd Mayer; Thomas Ochsenkuhn; William J. Sandborn; Dennis Parenti; Kevin Lee; Walter Reinisch

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons; Oxford University Press; Oxford University Press (OUP) (ISSN 1078-0998)

Published

2009

Language

EN

Field

Medicine (Health Sciences)