Multicentric Reticulohistiocytosis Treated Successfully with Etanercept

Multicentric reticulohistiocytosis (MRH) is an uncommon systemic disease of unknown aetiology, which is characterized by the presence of papulonodular lesions, and is caused by the proliferation of histiocytes associated with arthritis. There are only just 200 cases described in the scientific literature. It can behave like a paraneoplasia and may be malignant in a quarter of the patients. We would like to add our patient to those described in the literature. Our patient was a 68 year-old male stonemason who was diagnosed of multicentric reticulohistiocytosis and was previously unsuccessfully treated with classical immunosupressants. The patient did, nonetheless, develop favourably with etanercept, with remission of the clinical and articular lesions.

In our opinion we feel that new treatment hopes will emerge for the treatment of inflammatory diseases where tumoral necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and other cytokine production by monocytes and macrophages will play an important role.