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Cyclosporin treatment in steroid-resistant and acutely exacerbated interstitial pneumonia
Sakae Homma1, Susumu Sakamoto, Masateru Kawabata
1Department of Respiratory Medicine, Respiratory Center, Tokyo.
Objective:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of cyclosporin A (CsA) in patients with interstitial pneumonia (IP).
Design:
Retrospective comparative study.
Patients:
We reviewed 33 patients (23 males and 10 females with a mean age of 62.5 years) with histologically-proven progressive IP who were treated with CsA. All patients had corticosteroid-resistant IP or developed acute exacerbation of IP in their courses.
Results:
The underlying systemic diseases were: idiopathic interstitial pneumonias (IIPs) in 19 patients, and collagen vascular diseases (CVDs) in 14. The histopathological patterns and underlying diseases of IP were classified as usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP)/idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in 10 patients, cellular-nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP)/IIPs in 3, fibrotic-NSIP/IIPs in 5, organizing pneumonia (OP)/IIP in 1, UIP/CVDs in 4, cellular-NSIP/CVDs in 7, fibrotic-NSIP/CVDs in 2, and diffuse alveolar damage (DAD)/CVD in 1, respectively. They received a low dosage of CsA combined with corticosteroids. The prognoses after treatment with CsA were well correlated with histopathological patterns. Cellular-NSIP and OP showed better prognoses than fibrotic-NSIP, UIP or DAD. In addition, CVDs had better prognoses than IIPs, when compared on the basis of the same histopathological patterns. Furthermore, the prognoses in the CsA-treated group were significantly better than in those without CsA treatment in regard to acute exacerbation of UIP/IPF.
Conclusions:
CsA combined with corticosteroids may be an efficacious treatment for corticosteroid-resistant IP and for acute exacerbation of IPF.
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