The Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F for the treatment of systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease: data from a Chinese EUSTAR Center.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy and safety of the Chinese herb Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F (TwHF) for the treatment of systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD). METHODS: SSc-ILD patients who were regularly treated for more than 1 year and were currently taking a stable dose of TwHF (40-60 mg/day) or CYC (100 mg/day) were selected from the EUSTAR database of Peking Union Medical College Hospital. The efficacy of treatments was assessed by the change in pulmonary function, including the forced vital capacity (FVC) and the percentage of predicted FVC (FVC pred%). RESULTS: Among the 431 patients diagnosed with SSc-ILD, 76 fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Twenty eight patients received TwHF monotherapy, while 48 received oral CYC monotherapy. Baseline data prior to treatment did not differ significantly between the two groups. After 1 year of treatment, significant improvements in the FVC and FVC pred% were seen in both groups (P < 0.05) and the magnitude of improvement was comparable (P = 0.93). However, TwHF was only found to be effective in improving FVC and FVC pred% when administered as a maintenance therapy, but not as an induction therapy. No severe adverse events were seen in either group. Leucopenia occurred more often in the CYC group compared to the TwHF group (P = 0.034). CONCLUSION: TwHF may be considered as a potential alternative drug for SSc-ILD patients, especially as a maintenance therapy. A prospective randomized controlled trial is necessary to further confirm these results.Key Points• This is the first clinical study of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F (TwHF) in the treatment of SSc-ILD, providing a novel therapeutic option for SSc-ILD.• TwHF shows a comparable therapeutic efficacy to CYC when treating SSc-ILD.• TwHF has unique therapeutic advantages considering the balance of economy and safety and may be a good potential choice for maintenance therapy.

Antibodies to phosphatidylserine/prothrombin (aPS/PT) enhanced the diagnostic performance in Chinese patients with antiphospholipid syndrome.

BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence has highlighted the role of non-criteria antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs) as important supplements to the current criteria aPLs for the diagnosis of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). In this retrospective study, we evaluated the clinical relevance of antibodies to phosphatidylserine/prothrombin (aPS/PT) in Chinese patients with APS. METHODS: A total of 441 subjects were tested, including 101 patients with primary APS (PAPS), 140 patients with secondary APS (SAPS), 161 disease controls (DCs) and 39 healthy controls (HCs). Serum IgG/IgM aPS/PT was determined by ELISA. RESULTS: The levels of IgG/IgM aPS/PT were significantly increased in patients with APS compared with DCs and HCs. IgG and IgM aPS/PT were present in 29.7% and 54.5% of PAPS, and 42.1% and 53.6% of SAPS, respectively. For diagnosis of APS, IgG aCL exhibited the highest positive likelihood ratio (LR+) of 21.60, followed by LA (13.84), IgG aß2GP1 (9.19) and IgG aPS/PT (8.49). aPS/PT was detected in 13.3% of seronegative PAPS patients and 31.3% of seronegative SAPS patients. LA exhibited the highest OR of 3.64 in identifying patients with thrombosis, followed by IgG aCL (OR, 2.63), IgG aPS/PT (OR, 2.55) and IgG aß2GP1 (OR, 2.33). LA and IgG aCL were correlated with both arterial and venous thrombosis, whereas IgG aPS/PT and IgG aß2GP1 correlated with venous or arterial thrombosis, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the inclusion of IgG/IgM aPS/PT may enhance the diagnostic performance for APS, especially in those in whom APS is highly suspected, but conventional aPLs are repeatedly negative. In addition, IgG aPS/PT may contribute to identify patients at risk of thrombosis.