Immune-mediated skin lesions in patients treated with anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha inhibitors.

OBJECTIVE: To describe immune-mediated skin lesion (IMSL) development in patients during anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) therapy.

METHODS: Two hundred and fifty-two patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 183 with spondyloarthropathies (SpA) treated with anti-TNF inhibitors were analysed to identify IMSLs.

RESULTS: Of the 252 patients with RA (146 treated with infliximab, 72 with adalimumab, and 34 with etanercept), 32 developed IMSLs. Eleven patients developed psoriatic skin lesions, 10 presented with granuloma annulare (GA), five had skin vasculitis, two alopecia areata, two discoid lupus erythematosus, one lichenoid eruption (lichen planus), and one vitiligo. Of the 183 patients with SpA (138 treated with infliximab, 37 with etanercept, and eight with adalimumab), 10 cases with IMSLs were identified. All were treated with infliximab. More specifically, six patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) developed psoriatic skin lesions, one developed GA, one lichen planus, and one alopecia areata. In addition, one patient with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) developed skin vasculitis. The occurrence of these IMSLs ranged from 3 to 36 months with a median of 20 months. Of all the patients with IMSL development, two with psoriatic skin lesions, two with GA, and one with vasculitis stopped anti-TNF therapy because of the extent and severity of the skin lesions.

CONCLUSIONS: Our results on patients treated with TNF antagonists strongly support a link between TNF inhibition and IMSL development. Although these clinical complications are rare, clinicians should be aware of their occurrence and should recognize them.