Refractory Takayasu arteritis successfully treated with infliximab

Takayasu arteritis (TA) is a chronic inflammatory disease of large arteries which progressively develop stenosis, occlusion or aneurismal degeneration. Proinflammatory cytokines and, among these, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) are increased and play a pathogenetic role in the development of disease. Conventional therapy often fails to determine clinical remission and, in these cases, pathogenetic strategies with anti-TNF-alpha drugs have been proposed. Infliximab is a human-murine chimeric monoclonal antibody that specifically binds to and neutralizes soluble TNF-alpha. It is an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, spondyloarthritis, Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis and it has been recently proposed for the treatment of TA in patients refractory to conventional therapy. Here we report the case of a patient affected by Takayasu arteritis unresponsive to conventional therapy who was then treated with infliximab and obtained a clinical remission of the disease.