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Novel treatment (new drug/intervention; established drug/procedure in new situation)
Stiff-person syndrome treated with rituximab
  1. Marcelo Evangelista Lobo1,
  2. Marx Lincoln Barros Araújo2,
  3. Carlos Alberto Bezerra Tomaz3,
  4. Nasser Allam4
  1. 1Department of Neurology, Hospital Universitário de Brasília, Brasilia, Brazil
  2. 2Department of Neuroradiology, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
  3. 3Neurosciences and Behaviour Laboratory, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, Brazil
  4. 4Department of Neurology, Hospital de Base do Distrito Federal, Brasilia, Brazil
  1. Correspondence to Marcelo Evangelista Lobo, mlobo.neuro{at}gmail.com

Summary

Stiff-person syndrome (SPS) is a rare neurological condition consisting of progressive and fluctuating rigidity of the axial muscles combined with painful spasms. The pathophysiology of SPS is not fully understood, but there seems to be an autoimmune component. The use of rituximab, a chimeric monoclonal antibody targeting CD20 protein in the surface of mature B cells, for the treatment of SPS is a recent therapeutical approach showing promising results. The authors present a case report of a 41-year-old female patient diagnosed with SPS who was treated with rituximab in a public hospital in Brasília, Brazil, showing a good and safe response to the treatment so far. Our data go along with some recent articles published in the literature.

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Footnotes

  • Competing interests None.

  • Patient consent Obtained.