Successful treatment of refractory enteritis and arthritis with combination of tumour necrosis factor and interleukin-6 inhibition in patients with ulcerative colitis

Abstract

ABSTRACT An 18 year-old man with autoimmune hepatitis-primary sclerosing cholangitis-overlap syndrome and ulcerative colitis was admitted due to relapsed enteritis and polyarthritis after cessation of infliximab. Colonoscopy and articular ultrasonography revealed large ulcers in the colon with crypt abscess in the specimens and active enthesitis and synovitis, respectively. His intestinitis was improved with golimumab but arthritis was persistent. Golimumab was switched to secukinumab, which was effective for arthritis. However, colitis was flared resulting in total colorectal resection. One month after colectomy, polyarthritis was relapsed. Tocilizumab ameliorated arthritis but enteritis emerged again, and switching tocilizumab to adalimumab improved enteritis but arthritis exacerbated. Finally, we restarted tocilizumab for arthritis with continued adalimumab for enteritis. The dual cytokine blocking strategy, tumour necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 inhibition, subsided both of his refractory enteritis and arthritis and maintained remission for more than 3 years without any serious adverse event. Our case suggests that enteritis and arthritis in inflammatory bowel disease may be different in pathophysiology and raises the possible usefulness of simultaneous inhibition of two inflammatory cytokines in such cases.