Original articleAssociation of Trough Serum Infliximab to Clinical Outcome After Scheduled Maintenance Treatment for Crohn’s Disease
Section snippets
Patients
A consecutive cohort of 105 patients with refractory inflammatory and/or perianal fistulizing Crohn’s disease who initiated infliximab treatment between March 2000–February 2005 were studied. At baseline, the induction protocol for fistulizing disease was infliximab 5 mg/kg infused intravenously at 0, 2, and 6 weeks, and for inflammatory disease it was either the 3-dose induction or a single infusion at 5 mg/kg. Thereafter, 82 patients received 5 mg/kg infliximab at regular scheduled intervals
Patients
Baseline characteristics of the 105 patients are shown in Table 1. The indication for infliximab was inflammatory disease in 66 patients and inflammatory disease associated with perianal fistulizing disease in 39 patients. Thirty-one patients received concurrent immunosuppressive therapy (azathioprine or methotrexate). After infliximab induction treatment, 82 patients received scheduled maintenance infliximab therapy at a maximum interval of 8 weeks, and 23 patients received episodic infliximab
Discussion
Infliximab is now an established treatment for patients with refractory Crohn’s disease.2, 4 However, Crohn’s disease is a chronic illness that frequently requires long-term treatment, and understanding why some patients derive less benefit with infliximab is an important focus for investigation. Our results showed for Crohn’s disease patients receiving maintenance infusions of infliximab treatment at scheduled intervals, the proportion of patients who obtained clinical benefit was similar for
References (20)
- et al.
Maintenance infliximab for Crohn’s disease: the ACCENT I randomized trial
Lancet
(2002) - et al.
Comparison of scheduled and episodic treatment strategies in Crohn’s disease
Gastroenterology
(2004) - et al.
Incidence and importance of antibody responses to infliximab after maintenance or episodic treatment in Crohn’s disease
Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol
(2004) - et al.
Intravenous hydrocortisone premedication reduces antibodies to infliximab in Crohn’s disease: a randomized trial
Gastroenterology
(2003) - et al.
A simplified index of Crohn’s disease activity
Lancet
(1980) - et al.
Development and validation of a new, simplified endoscopic activity score for Crohn’s disease: the SES-CD
Gastrointest Endosc
(2004) - et al.
Infliximab induction and maintenance therapy for moderate-to-severe psoriasis: a phase III, multicentre, double-blind trial
Lancet
(2005) - et al.
A review of activity indices and efficacy endpoints for clinical trials of medical therapy in adults with Crohn’s disease
Gastroenterology
(2002) - et al.
A short-term study of chimeric monoclonal antibody cA2 to tumor necrosis factor α for Crohn’s disease
N Engl J Med
(1997) - et al.
Infliximab for the treatment of fistulas in patients with Crohn’s disease
N Engl J Med
(1999)
Cited by (575)
Therapeutic Drug Monitoring for Biologic and Small-Molecule Therapies for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
2024, Medicina (Lithuania)Anti-infliximab antibodies and low infliximab levels correlate with drug discontinuation in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease
2024, Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and NutritionInfliximab desensitization in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases: a safe therapeutic alternative
2024, Scandinavian Journal of Gastroenterology
Supported by the Campacci Research Fund for Inflammatory Bowel Disease of the Mount Sinai Hospital.