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Updated: May 21, 2026

Assessment of Human Natural Killer Cell Events Driven by FcγRIIIa Engagement in the Presence of Therapeutic Antibodies
Published on: May 22, 2020
Rituximab and cytokine release syndrome
Hrishikesh S Kulkarni1, Pashtoon Murtaza Kasi
1Department of Internal Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), Pittsburgh, Pa., USA.
Abstract:
Rituximab is a biologic agent that is usually well tolerated. With its increasing use for a myriad of rheumatologic and immunologic conditions, post-marketing surveillance has revealed more side effects. Systemic inflammatory response syndrome associated with cytokine release syndrome (CRS) is a very rare entity associated with the use of rituximab and carries a very high morbidity and case fatality rate. Cases of CRS reported within the literature are of patients with a very high tumor burden leading to a catastrophic cascade of events. We report the case of a patient having post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder who died of fatal lactic acidosis and CRS within 24 h of receiving rituximab. Understanding the pathophysiology of such cases and identifying patients at risk may help to possibly avert this life-threatening complication.
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