Rituximab as a glucocorticoid-sparing agent in idiopathic inflammatory myopathies: a retrospective single-center cohort study

Abstract

Background Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are essentially treated aiming to improve muscle function and extra muscular disease manifestations. Rituximab is potentially a glucocorticoid-sparing agent which was reviewed in multiple studies with small sample sizes due to the rarity of the disease. Higher statistical power can enhance the trustworthiness of alternative treatment modalities yielding the main objective of this study.