Disease-modifying Therapy in Vasculitides

Especially the past two decades have seen renewed interest in the vasculitides. In this volume an international expert group presents the current state of knowledge and concentrates on principles of immune modulating therapy. Drawing from their work in rheumatology, nephrology, internal medicine, connective tissue disease and clinical immunology, they present new concepts in classificiation, diagnosis and pathophysiology of the vasculitides. Evidence from experimental and clinical trials is reviewed, as well as the outlook for further research.

Systemic vasculitides, an introduction.- Standard therapeutic regimens for vasculitis.- Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibition in the treatment of vasculitis.- Methotrexate as an alternative to classic immunosuppressive therapies.- Intravenous immunoglobulin as immuno-modifying treatment.- T-cell directed treatment: anti-thymocyte globulin.- New immunosuppressants: mycophenolate mofetil and 15-deoxyspergualin.- Interferon-? for the treatment of virus-related systemic vasculitides.- Autologous stem cell therapy for systemic vasculitis.- Prevention of relapsing disease in anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody related necrotizing small-vessel vasculitis: the role for autoantibody guided and anti-bacterial treatment.