Rituximab for the treatment of calcinosis in dermatomyositis: A case series and review of the literature

Clicks: 3
ID: 338243
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Emerging

Ranked #339 of 339 articles by views in Lara D. Veeken

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 339 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Dystrophic calcinosis, a frequent complication of dermatomyositis (DM) and juvenile DM (JDM) is poorly responsive to treatment. We analysed the outcomes of calcinosis in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myositis (IIM) and calcinosis treated with rituximab. METHODS: IIM patients with calcinosis who received at least one cycle of rituximab (750 mg/m² in adults and 575 mg/m² in children on day 1 and day 14) were included. Baseline data included MMT8, patient global assessment, physician global assessment, myositis-specific and myositis-associated antibodies, duration, location and morphological pattern on plain radiographs of calcinosis. Improvement was defined as any reduction of calcinosis on plain radiographs. RESULTS: Of 224 IIM patients, 18 had calcinosis of whom 10 received rituximab (six JDM and four adult patients). Five of 10 patients were anti-NXP2, other MSAs were anti-MDA5, anti-PL7, and anti-Mi2. Seven of 10 patients had calcinosis at presentation; three developed subsequently. Predominant morphologies (radiographically) were nodular and sheet-like; two had mixed patterns. Eight of 10 patients also had active myositis (MITAX A or B) at rituximab initiation-of these, all showed either improvement or stabilization. Of the two with inactive disease treated solely for calcinosis, one stabilised; the other worsened. The one patient who worsened had diffuse distribution and mixed morphology of calcinosis. CONCLUSION: In this small series, rituximab initiation during active myositis was associated with improvement or stabilization of calcinosis; however, given the limited sample size, this observation should be interpreted cautiously and requires prospective validation.
Reference Key
openalex_W7225098422 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Subin Philip, Anna C Das, Aishwarya Gopal, Chengappa G. Kavadichanda, Muthuvatt Balaraman Adarsh, Saikumar Dunga, Mamatha Gorijavulu, Molly Mary Thabah, Vir Singh Negi
Are you one of these authors? Claim your profile
Journal Lara D. Veeken
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/rheumatology/keag616
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/rheumatology/keag616
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.