The treatment of skin ulcers in systemic sclerosis: use of granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) in 26 patients
Objectives: To verify the effectiveness of G-CSF in the treatment of non-healing skin lesions in SSc patients. Methods: 26 SSc patients (23 F and 3 M, age 54 ±13,6 yrs) with skin ulcers were enrolled in a pilot study. Prior to the treatment with G-CSF, all ulcers failed to heal with conventional the...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
PAGEPress Publications
2011-09-01
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| Series: | Reumatismo |
| Online Access: | http://www.reumatismo.org/index.php/reuma/article/view/246 |
| Summary: | Objectives: To verify the effectiveness of G-CSF in the treatment of non-healing skin lesions in SSc patients. Methods: 26 SSc patients (23 F and 3 M, age 54 ±13,6 yrs) with skin ulcers were enrolled in a pilot study. Prior to the treatment with G-CSF, all ulcers failed to heal with conventional therapies carried out for a period of 1-5 years. All patients were treated with 5μg/kg G-CSF subcutaneously for 5 days. Healing time, quality of wounds, VAS and HAQ-DI were used to evaluate the efficacy of the treatment. Results: An improvement of skin ulcers was observed in 24/26 patients; in particular, 22/26 wounds completely healed, 2/26 showed a partial healing, in only 2 patients skin ulcers did not change during the 6-month follow-up. The quality of life improves as showed by VAS (from 88±13 to 55±28; p<.0001) and HAQ (from 2.12 ±0.45 to 1.28±0.30; p<.0001). The eradication of pathogens from the infected ulcers was also observed in 12/12 patients; while no adverse side effects related to G-CSF were recorded. Our study suggests that G-CSF may be usefully employed in scleroderma skin ulcers refractory to conventional treatments. |
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| ISSN: | 0048-7449 2240-2683 |