Synthetic DMARDs May Blunt Pneumococcal Vaccine Response in Systemic Sclerosis

However, Dr. John Varga, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, tells Reuters Health in a phone interview, “I would be extremely cautious” about extrapolating these findings to other rheumatic diseases, noting SSc has features, such as fibrosis, that set it aside from other rheumatic diseases.

The study was well done, with clean results, Dr. Varga adds, but it was based on a small cohort (from southern Sweden) that’s unlikely to have had much ethnic diversity.

Reference

1. Hesselstrand R, Nagel J, Saxne T, et al. Immunogenicity and safety of pneumococcal vaccination in patients with systemic sclerosis. Rheumatology (Oxford). 2018 Jan 8. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/kex471. [Epub ahead of print]