Long-Term Response to Rituximab in Patients with Relapsing Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

Acquired thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TIP) is an uncommon disease in adults, characterized by fever, neurological manifestations, microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, renal dysfunction, and the presence of antibodies against the enzyme ADAMTS13. Treatment with plasmapheresis has increased the survival from 10% to more than 90%. Still, there is a subset of patients with resistant UP who fail to respond to plasmapheresis or remain dependent on this procedure. There is mounting evidence that rituximab may play an important role in remission induction of resistant/relapsing TIP, but the extent of the remission is unknown. We present here four patients with chronic-relapsing UP who responded favorably to rituximab. All four patients achieved prolonged remission of 23 to 82 months after the treatment. One patient relapsed 6 years after the initial treatment with rituximab and re-entered remission following retreatment. IMAJ 2011,13: 398-401