Disseminated nocardiosis in a patient with rheumatoid arthritis treated with abatacept

Nocardiosis in rheumatic patients: Case series and review of literature

“…For instance, two of our three patients received prednisone of 10 mg/day at the time of admission. Besides, nocardiosis has also been reported in patients given rituximab, etanercept, and abatacept 4–7 . For another, as shown in our laboratory data, two of our three patients had reduced absolute lymphocyte values, one of our three patients had reduced IgG, and one out of two patients had elevated CD4 + /CD8 + ratio.…”

Septic arthritis in immunocompetent and immunosuppressed hosts

“…A metaanalysis by Salliot et al did not find a significant increase in serious infections in patients with rheumatoid arthritis treated with abatacept [110]. However, its use is relatively recent, and there have been case reports of infections caused by Nocardia [111] and a number of viral infections [112] in patients treated with abatacept. Alemtuzumab, an anti-CD52 agent, is associated with a wide spectrum of infectious complications, including invasive fungal infections and severe mycobacterial infections [113], but there are limited data on the extent of the association with septic arthritis per se.…”