[ XXXX as possible treatment in refractory chronic inflammatory intestinal disease].

@entity1 @entity229 @entity31 @entity29 @entity134 @entity1499 @entity30
OBJECTIVE: To determine the value of low dose @entity1499 therapy in chronic @entity29 . SETTING: Catharina Hospital and Diaconessenhuis, Eindhoven, and St. Joseph Hospital, Veldhoven. DESIGN: Descriptive. METHOD: From 1988 until 1993 we treated 15 @entity1 16 times (one @entity1 was treated twice) with @entity1499 25 mg i.m. once a week during 12 weeks, followed by a tapering oral dose. Our population consisted of 4 @entity1 and 11 @entity1 with a mean age of 31 year. The diagnosis was @entity30 (1 @entity1 ), @entity30 (8), @entity30 (4) and @entity31 (2). The indication for @entity1499 was resistance to therapy (9) and @entity134 dependency (7). Retrospectively the disease activity was determined after 1, 2 and 3 months of therapy. RESULTS: The mean defaecation frequency went down from 7 to 2 times daily after 12 weeks, the ESR from 47 to 17 mm/1st hour, the thrombocytes from 436 x 10(9)/l to 325 x 10(9)/l and the @entity229 dose could be lowered from 22 mg to 15 mg after 3 months. In 13/16 treatment cases there was a subjective positive response to @entity1499 . Initial response was seen within 4 weeks. No serious side effects were seen. After 10 of the 13 response episodes the disease recurred. CONCLUSION: @entity1499 25 mg once a week i.m. was associated with a subjective and objective improvement in 12/15 @entity1 , but the risk of recurrence after tapering appears to be large.
