. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Feb 1.

Published in final edited form as: Int J Clin Rheumtol. 2012 Apr 1;7(2):159–166. doi: 10.2217/ijr.12.7

Table 2.

Safety of multiple rounds of B-cell depletion.

Study (year)	Duration	Number of patients	Number of courses					IR	Serious IR	Infections	Serious infections	Opportunistic/PML	Low IgM	Low IgG	Ref.
Study (year)	Duration	Number of patients	>1	>2	>3	>4	>5	IR	Serious IR	Infections	Serious infections	Opportunistic/PML	Low IgM	Low IgG	Ref.
Popa et al. (2007)	7 years	37	37	28	15	7	2	Four (fevers; 10.8%)	One (urticarial rash third cycle; 2.7%)	16 (all lower respiratory infections; 43.2%)	None (0%)	None (0%)	12 (32.4%)	7 (18.9%)	[23]

Autoimmunity and Rituximab Registry (2010)	Mean of 1.2 ± 0.8 years	712	712	466	176	45	25	Not reported		Total not reported	82 (11.5%)	1 (fungal septic arthritis; 0.14%)	Post-treatment not reported	Post-treatment not reported	[32]

van Vollenhoven et al. (2010)	Pooled data	2578	2578	1890	1043	425	133	915 (25% during first course)	14 (0.5%)	1663 (65%)	170 (7%)	49 (2%) VZV 1 PML (but post-cancer treatment 18 months post-RTX)	602 (23%)	141 (5%)	[29]

Serious IR: requiring withdrawal from study. Serious infection: requiring intravenous antibiotics.

IR: Infusion reaction; PML: Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy; RTX: Rituximab; VZV: Varicella zoster virus.