[Screening investigations during intensified immunosuppression in children and adolescents. Part 1]

The increasing use of combination therapies, including disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD) and biologicals has improved the outcome for children and adolescents in several rheumatic diseases. However, this strategy has increased the risk of drug-specific side-effects, such as an increased risk of infections. Furthermore, the underlying rheumatic disease itself often includes an increased risk of infections and some patients additionally present with immunological or organic comorbidities (e.g. complement deficiency and interstitial pulmonary disease) further increasing the susceptibility to infections. The presented review is based on an analysis of the currently available literature proposing a checklist of diagnostic procedures and immunological laboratory tests specific for the detection of patients prone to infections. The combined stratification of the underlying disease, comorbidities and the immunological mechanisms of the medication enables (1) an individual risk stratification of planned immunosuppressive therapy and (2) a prediction of the risks of infection for the patient.