Vaccines are today considered one of the most effective means against the Sars-CoV-2 pandemic. The BNT162b2 vaccine by Pfizer/BioNTech has been massively administered throughout the globe; since its approval, a wide spectrum of cutaneous reactions has been reported. Here we report the case of a 52-year-old Caucasian male who presented with an acute febrile eruption that arose 72 h after the first dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine. The clinicopathological findings were consistent with Sweet’s syndrome. The short latency time suggested a possible role of the vaccine in triggering Sweet’s syndrome in this case.
Rituximab (RTX) is a monoclonal antibody directed against CD20 antigen indicated in an increasing number of immune-mediated diseases. While its efficacy in pemphigus vulgaris has been widely investigated, only a few data about its possible role in pemphigoid diseases have been reported in the literature. Accordingly, herein we evaluated a case series of patients with mucous membrane pemphigoid (MMP) treated with RTX. We included patients with a history of severe/refractory MMP who received at least one cycle of intravenous RTX between May 2018 and December 2021 and had 6 months of follow-up time. Disease control (DC) was our early endpoint, while complete remission (CR) and partial remission (PR) were late endpoints. CR off-therapy, relapses, and adverse events were evaluated as well. Our population included 10 MMP patients. Eight out of ten patients (80%) achieved DC in a mean of 8 weeks, while two patients with ocular MMP were non-responders. Among the eight patients who achieved DC, two reached CR off therapy, two CR on minimal therapy, and two achieved PR on minimal therapy. In our case series, the addition of RTX to conventional therapies was demonstrated to be safe and effective in reaching rapid disease control in the majority of refractory MMP patients.
31 January 2024 in Dermatology Practical & Conceptual