Table 1.
Patients characteristics, muscular evaluation, and treatment administration at baseline and month 12.
Fig 1.
Flowchart.
Fig 2.
Evolution of strength and CK levels from baseline to months 18.
(A) MMT10 using Kendall score. (B) CK level. The continuous line and the dotted line represent the median Kendall score and the median CK level, respectively.
Fig 3.
Interstitial lung disease evolution.
Lung CT scans, before enrolment (M0) and 1 year later (M12), of the only patient with and nonspecific interstitial pneumonia improving after rituximab infusions.
Fig 4.
Forced vital capacity evolution.
Forced vital capacity (FVC) is represented for each patient who terminated the study and had interstitial lung disease (ILD). FVC is represented 6 months before enrolment (M−6), when available, and 6 and 12 months (M6 and M12) after the first rituximab infusion (arrow, M0). The grey area represents a decrease of ≥ 10% in absolute FVC at baseline compared with M−6. (*) Represents an increase or a decrease of ≥ 10% of absolute FVC or ≥ 15% of DLCOcor at M12 compared with M0.
Fig 5.
SF-36 scores measuring parameters of mobility.
For each score (ranging from 0 to 100) the mean values (± SD) are represented at different time points: baseline (M0); months 6, 12 and 18 after rituximab infusion (M6, M12 and M18). The asterisk represents a significant increase (more than 10 points) compared with baseline.
Fig 6.
Anti-Jo-1 titer variation and B-lymphocyte depletion.
Anti-Jo-1 titer was monitored for the 9 patients who terminated the study (the tenth had anti-PL-7). On the right side, 4 boxes represent the status at M12 (vs M0) concerning manual muscular testing (MM10), creatine kinase level (CK), treatment modification (treatment), and forced vital capacity (FVC). Black represents worsening, grey area represent no change, and white represents an improvement. Concerning CK, black shows an increased level at M12 and white a normal level.