Acta Reumatol Port
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Review Case Reports
Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome associated with systemic lupus erythematosus treated with rituximab: case report and a review of the literature.
Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome (CAPS) is a rare, acute, life-threatening form of antiphospholipid syndrome. In the last several decades there has been a significant improvement in the treatment of patients with CAPS, but the overall mortality is still very significant. The use of rituximab has been reported in the treatment of refractory cases of CAPS but the data are still scarce and inconclusive. ⋯ With this the criteria for definitive CAPS were fulfilled. To our knowledge, at present time, this is the first ever reported case of definitive CAPS associated with SLE treated with rituximab. There is a great need for further investigation to evaluate the effectiveness of rituximab in treatment of CAPS.