Cold hard facts of cryoglobulinemia: updates on clinical features and treatment advances.
Rheum Dis Clin North Am
; 41(1): 93-108, viii-ix, 2015.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-25399942
ABSTRACT
Cryoglobulins are immunoglobulins that precipitate at temperatures less than 37°C. They occur secondary to infectious, autoimmune, and malignant processes. In the Brouet classification, type I cryoglobulinemia is caused by hyperviscosity, whereas type II and III manifestations are caused by vasculitis in target organs (primarily skin, peripheral nerves, and kidney). New classification criteria were recently proposed that may help with study and treatment of cryoglobulinemic vasculitis (CryoVas). Hepatitis C virus is the most common cause of CryoVas and treatment with antivirals can be curative in mild cases, whereas rituximab is highly effective in treating active vasculitis in more severe cases.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Antirheumatic Agents
/
Cryoglobulinemia
/
Antibodies, Monoclonal, Murine-Derived
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Etiology_studies
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Rheum Dis Clin North Am
Year:
2015
Document type:
Article