Immunosuppressive drugs were given to seven patients with polymyositis. The in-vitro activity of peripheral blood lymphocytes had previously been studied in five of these patients with findings suggestive of disturbed immunological processes. Some improvement occurred in five cases, but only in two was the improvement marked and sustained. In this small series of cases, the response to treatmen...

Although there is general agreement on the favorable effect of immunosuppression in eosinophilic, granulomatous, giant-cell myocarditis and in lymphocytic myocarditis associated with connective tissue disorders and with rejection of a transplanted heart, its therapeutic role in lymphocytic inflammatory cardiomyopathy (ICM) is still debated. Previous retrospective studies reported a relevant cli...

Immunosupressants are drugs that act in cell division and have anti-inflammatory effects. Therefore, they are essentially prescribed in the prevention of transplant rejection and in the treatment of autoimmune disorders and chronic inflammatory diseases, whose main example in Dermatology is psoriasis. In this work the most important immunosuppressive drugs and orientation to properly administer...

In the last decade, a paradigm shift has occurred in the field of renal transplantation. The use of new and powerful immunosuppressive drugs has led to excellent short-term patient and graft survival and very low acute rejection (AR) rates. Two burning questions have become paramount. The first is how can we improve long-term patient and graft survival despite the fact that more elderly patient...

Immunosuppressive agents have diverse (although often multiple) sites of action in the cell sequences that are involved in immune responses. New routes to selectivity are apparent at both the cellular and the biochemical level. Meanwhile, clinical work is finding new uses and more selective employment of the currently available agents.