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. 2022 Nov;9(1):e000779.
doi: 10.1136/lupus-2022-000779.

Comparison of short interval and low dose (SILD) with high dose of cyclophosphamide in the susceptibility to infection in SLE: a multicentrereal-world study

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Comparison of short interval and low dose (SILD) with high dose of cyclophosphamide in the susceptibility to infection in SLE: a multicentrereal-world study

Miao Shao et al. Lupus Sci Med. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Objective: Infection is a major cause of death in patients with SLE. This study aimed to explore the infection rate in patients with SLE receiving a low dose of intravenous cyclophosphamide (IV-CYC).

Methods: Clinical parameters of 1022 patients with SLE from 24 hospitals in China were collected. Patients were divided into the short-interval and lower-dose (SILD, 400 mg every 2 weeks) IV-CYC group and the high-dose (HD, 500 mg/m2 of body surface area every month) IV-CYC group. The clinical data and infection rate between the two groups were compared.

Results: Compared with HD IV-CYC, the infection rate of the SILD IV-CYC group was significantly lower (13.04% vs 22.27%, p=0.001). Respiratory tract infection (10.28% vs 15.23%, p=0.046) and skin/soft tissue infection (1.78% vs 4.3%, p=0.040) were significantly decreased in the SILD IV-CYC group. Moreover, infections occurred most likely in patients with SLE with leucopenia (OR 2.266, 95% CI 1.322 to 3.887, p=0.003), pulmonary arterial hypertension (OR 2.756, 95% CI 1.249 to 6.080, p=0.012) and >15 mg/day of glucocorticoid (OR 2.220, 95% CI 1.097 to 4.489, p=0.027).

Conclusions: SILD IV-CYC showed a lower frequency of infection events than high-dose IV-CYC in patients with SLE.

Keywords: SLE; cyclophosphamide; therapeutics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of the selection of patients with SLE. HD IV-CYC, high-dose intravenous cyclophosphamide; IV-CYC, intravenous cyclophosphamide; group 1, the SILD IV-CYC group, short-interval and lower-dose intravenous cyclophosphamide fortnightly with a fixed dose of 400 mg; group 2, the HD IV-CYC group, high-dose intravenous cyclophosphamide monthly at a dose of 500 mg/m2 of body surface area; n, number of patients; SILD IV-CYC, short-interval and lower-dose intravenous cyclophosphamide.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of the rates of new infection in patients with SLE undergoing SILD IV-CYC and HD IV-CYC treatments. HD IV-CYC, high-dose intravenous cyclophosphamide; M, months; SILD IV-CYC, short-interval lower-dose intravenous cyclophosphamide.

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