Long-Term Efficacy of Adalimumab in Patients With Intestinal Behcet’s Disease: Eight Consecutive Cases

Abstract

The long-term efficacy and safety of adalimumab (ADA) for the treat- ment of intestinal Behcet’s disease (BD) in the clinical setting have not been evaluated previously. This retrospective study evaluated the 52-week efficacy of ADA in BD patients. A total of eight patients who were refractory to conventional therapy were given ADA (160/80/40 mg every other week). Marked improvement (MI) was achieved by 10 weeks in five patients (62.5%), and by 52 weeks in six patients (75%). In addition, complete remission was obtained in two patients (25%) at both 10 and 52 weeks. Improvement of global gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms to score 0 was observed in three patients (37.5%) at 10 weeks and four patients (50%) at 52 weeks. Moreover, improvement of endoscopic assessment to score 0 was also seen in four patients (50%) at both 10 and 52 weeks. No adverse events were observed in any patients during the 52 weeks. In conclusion, ADA offers an ef- fective, well-tolerated treatment for intestinal BD in patients who are refractory to conventional therapy.