Elsevier

Respiratory Medicine

Volume 99, Issue 4, April 2005, Pages 511-514
Respiratory Medicine

CASE REPORT
Improvement of refractory rheumatoid arthritis-associated constrictive bronchiolitis with etanercept

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmed.2004.09.001Get rights and content
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Summary

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA)-associated constrictive bronchiolitis is a severe condition with no established efficient treatment. A 55-year-old woman with seropositive RA developed rapidly progressive constrictive bronchiolitis confirmed by lung biopsy. Her clinical condition worsened despite steroids and azathioprine. Treatment with etanercept—a tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α inhibitor—combined with methotrexate, resulted in a marked improvement of both her clinical condition and pulmonary function tests. Treatment with TNF-α inhibitors and methotrexate may be proposed in RA-associated constrictive bronchiolitis, a severe condition hitherto not amenable to improvement.

KEYWORDS

Constrictive bronchiolitis
Etanercept
Rheumatoid arthritis
Tumor necrosis factor-α

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