Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic inflammatory disease with a relapsing and remitting course, which is often treatable with immunosuppressive therapy. However, we describe a patient with severe and refractory thrombotic thrombocytopaenic purpura (TTP) secondary to SLE that did not respond to high dose corticosteroids, cyclophosphamide (CyC), vincristine, rituximab, and plasmapheresis. She eventually required haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) to bring the disease under control. She is in disease remission three years post-stem cell transplantation. HSCT is a possible treatment option for severe and refractory SLE when conventional therapy has failed. HSCT for other rheumatologic diseases is also reviewed.

Rheumatology in the Singapore General Hospital — Looking Back, Looking Forward

“…For example, the support of Duke-NUS, in particular though the exemplary Khoo Clinical Scholars programme (now part of the Academic Medicine Research institute) headed by Professor A John Rush (who has been a mentor and inspiration to many) has been instrumental in the career development of several Rheumatologists who are now spearheading research programmes with competitive research funding. Several papers in this issue showcase other collaborations: the paper by Tan et al 13 is a collaboration between our colleagues in Paediatric Rheumatology and Laboratory Immunology, while papers by Fong et al 14 and Ali et al 15 showcase the multidisciplinary clinical collaboration which is so essential in the management of complex Rheumatology patients.…”