Multicentric Castleman's disease treated with antivirals and immunosuppressants

✍ Scribed by Sanjaya Senanayake; John Kelly; Andrew Lloyd; Zubair Waliuzzaman; David Goldstein; William Rawlinson

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 70 KB
• Volume: 71
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0146-6615
• DOI: 10.1002/jmv.10500

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

A patient negative for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) developed multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD) and Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) associated with active human herpesvirus 8 (HHV‐8) infection. He was treated with sequential antiviral therapy, chemotherapy, and corticosteroids. HHV‐8 levels were monitored throughout the course of the patient's illness, and were found to rise on relapse. No consistent change in HHV‐8 levels was found with antiviral therapy. We demonstrate that in this patient antiviral therapy was clinically ineffective, and did not alter HHV‐8 levels, but that corticosteroid and combination chemotherapy led to clinical improvement. Despite the implication of HHV‐8 as a cause of MCD, few studies have correlated HHV‐8 levels with clinical response. J. Med. Virol. 71:399–403, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.