Tocilizumab

Although many rheumatologists view Takayasu’s arteritis as “basically the same disease” as giant cell arteritis, tocilizumab is more effective in the latter than the former, according to a presenter at the 2020 Congress of Clinical Rheumatology-East.

High-dose methylprednisolone, followed by tocilizumab if needed, may speed up respiratory recovery, decrease hospital mortality and prevent ventilation in patients with COVID-19-related cytokine storm syndrome, said researchers.

Tocilizumab, an interleukin-6 receptor inhibitor, improved myocardial salvage in patients with first-time acute STEMI compared with placebo, according to the ASSAIL-MI trial presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress.

A quotidian fever lasting at least 2 weeks is one of the hallmarks of systemic onset juvenile idiopathic arthritis, according to a presenter at the 2020 Rheumatology Nurses Society Annual Conference.

Mechanically ventilated patients with COVID-19 who received tocilizumab were 45% less likely to die, according to a single-center study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The immunosuppressant tocilizumab may be an effective treatment for very ill individuals with COVID-19 and hematologic malignancies, according to results of a case study from China published in Blood Advances.

In this video, Nikhil C. Munshi, MD, professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, discussed what questions patients typically ask about the treatment and how to address them.