Abstract
Objective. To evaluate the prognostic value of serum levels of infliximab (IFX) and anti-IFX antibodies for predicting treatment efficacy in children with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Patients and methods. This study included 123 children with IBD (65 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 58 patients with Crohn's disease (CD)) aged between 3 and 18 years. Children were examined upon the completion of an induction course of therapy and then after 1 year of therapy and between 1 and 3 years of treatment. The induction course was administered according to the scheme of 0–2–6 weeks; maintenance therapy was administered with 6-week and 8-week intervals. The residual level of IFX and the level of anti-IFX antibodies in serum were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results. We observed a significant increase in the IFX level during clinical remission of CD (remission – 5.21 [3.32; 7.43] μg/mL; exacerbation – 2.42 [0.42; 4.51] μg/mL, p = 0.001) and UC (remission – 4.57 [3.4; 6.74] μg/mL; exacerbation – 0.63 [0.4; 3.27] μg/mL, p = 0.000). ROC analysis demonstrated high accuracy of our model based on measuring residual IFX level for distinguishing between exacerbation and remission in both CD patients (AUC = 0.812) and UC patients (AUC = 0.851). The optimal minimum level of IFX for maintaining clinical remission was 3.7 μg/mL in children with CD and 3.4 μg/mL in children with UC. Anti-IFX antibodies were detected in 18% of patients; children with exacerbation were 4.7 times more likely to have detectable level of anti-IFX antibodies than those in clinical remission. Conclusion. Monitoring of serum levels of IFX and anti-IFX antibodies is a promising method for predicting treatment efficacy and its optimization in children with IBD. Key words: inflammatory bowel disease, tumor necrosis factor-α, infliximab, residual level of infliximab, anti-infliximab antibodies
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