Tocilizumab in refractory Caucasian Takayasu's arteritis: a multicenter study of 54 patients and literature review.

Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of tocilizumab (TCZ) in Caucasian patients with refractory Takayasu's arteritis (TAK) in clinical practice.

Methods: A multicenter study of Caucasian patients with refractory TAK who received TCZ. The outcome variables were remission, glucocorticoid-sparing effect, improvement in imaging techniques, and adverse events.

Tocilizumab in giant cell arteritis: differences between the GiACTA trial and a multicentre series of patients from the clinical practice.

Objectives: A potential point of concern among clinicians is whether results derived from the clinical trials can be reasonably applied or generalised to a definable group of patients seen in real world. It can be the case of the GiACTA study that is a phase III randomised controlled trial of tocilizumab (TCZ) in giant cell arteritis (GCA). To address this question, we compared the clinical features and the responses to TCZ from the GiACTA trial patients with those from a series of GCA seen in the daily clinical practice.

Listeria monocytogenes infection in patients with rheumatic diseases on TNF-alpha antagonist therapy: the Spanish Study Group experience.

Objective: The prognosis of patients with rheumatic diseases has improved considerably following the use of biological therapies. However, an increase in the frequency of bacterial infections has been observed in patients receiving these therapies. In the present study we aimed to assess the frequency of Listeria monocytogenes infection in a large series of patients with rheumatic diseases on treatment with tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha blockers because of active disease refractory to conventional therapy, included in the Spanish Registry of Adverse Events of Biological Therapies in Rheumatic Diseases (BIOBADASER) of the Spanish Society for Rheumatology.