Pure red cell aplasia due to parvovirus B19 in a patient treated with rituximab

V R Sharma1, D R Fleming, S P Slone

  • 1Division of Medical Oncology/Hematology, the Department of Pathology, and the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville, KY 40202, USA. vrshar01@gwise.louisville.edu

Blood
|July 27, 2000
PubMed

Rituximab is a chimeric monoclonal antibody directed against CD20 and used in the treatment of B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Due to its ability to deplete B lymphocytes, rituximab can interfere with humoral immunity, causing it to be suppressed for several months after treatment. The reported case depicts a serious consequence of this effect of rituximab therapy: pure red cell aplasia resulting from chronic parvovirus B19 infection. The point of interest in this case is not only the association between rituximab therapy and pure red cell aplasia, but the diagnostic and therapeutic utility of the knowledge of parvovirus B19 as the likely etiologic link between the two. Given the known efficacy of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) in the treatment of chronic parvovirus B19 infection, this therapy can cure some of these patients and successfully render most others transfusion-independent until recovery of their own humoral immune system.

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