EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF SYSTEMIC RECOMBINANT INTERFERON-ALPHA IN BEHCETS-DISEASE

Objectives. To evaluate the therapeutic efficacy and safety of systemi c recombinant interferon alpha-2a (IFN -alpha) in patients with Behcet 's disease (BD) and to determine the incidence of episodes in complete responders during the one-year pretreatment period and follow-up. Des ign. An open clinical study. Setting. Departments of Dermatology and O phthalmology, University of Patras, Greece and Department of Dermatolo gy, Heinrich-Heine University of Diisseldorf, Germany. Subjects. Twelv e patients (aged 23-52 years) with active ED who had previously been u nsuccessfully treated with systemic steroids and/or immunosuppressives .Interventions. IFN-alpha was administered subcutaneously at a dose of 6 x 10(6) IU per day 3 times per week; for 2 months. Main outcome mea sures. Change of area or number of mucocutaneous lesions, grading scor e for thrombophlebitis and ocular inflammation, haematological and bio chemical parameters and number of episodes during the pretreatment per iod and the follow-up. Evaluation of IFN-alpha side effects. Results. Nine patients (75.0%) revealed a complete remission, two (16.6%) a par tial remission and one patient (8.3%) showed no response. During the f ollow-up in five out of the nine complete responders (55.5%) no episod es of ED were seen, whereas, the other four patients (44.5%) had 1-2 e pisodes, as compared to 5-8 and 5-12 episodes, respectively, during th e pretreatment period. An influenza-like syndrome (fever, nausea and m yalgias) appeared during the early phase of therapy in all (but one) p atients. No patient had to discontinue IFN-alpha because of intoleranc e. Conclusions. Subcutaneous human recombinant interferon alpha-2a app ears to be an effective and fairly well tolerated therapy for ED.