Trial reportThe European respiratory journal2011
An open-label trial of rituximab therapy in pulmonary alveolar proteinosis.
Trial report in The European respiratory journal, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 132 citations in OpenAlex.
- The burden of autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis: a systematic review.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2026Pooled it
- Better approach for autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis treatment: inhaled or subcutaneous granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor: a meta-analyses.Respiratory research · 2018Pooled it
- Rituximab therapy in pulmonary alveolar proteinosis improves alveolar macrophage lipid homeostasis.Respiratory research · 2012Trial
- A long-term observational study on autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis revealed a sustained and generalized decrease in serum autoantibody levels.Orphanet journal of rare diseases · 2026Observational
- A Case of Autoimmune Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis.Clinical case reports · 2026Article
- ConcurrentCase reports in infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Outcomes and outcome measures in studies of pulmonary alveolar proteinosis: a scoping review.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2026Review
- Recombinant GM-CSF drug evaluation review.Immunotherapy · 2025Review
- Review
- Summary for clinicians: ERS guidelines on pulmonary alveolar proteinosis.Breathe (Sheffield, England) · 2025Review
- Phenotypic heterogeneity in mortality and prognosis of pulmonary alveolar proteinosis: a large-scale, global pooled analysis of individual-level data.Orphanet journal of rare diseases · 2025Article
- Article
- A Comprehensive Outlook on Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis-A Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- The world of rare interstitial lung diseases.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2023Review
- Autoimmune Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis during the Treatment of Idiopathic Inflammatory Myopathy.Internal medicine (Tokyo, Japan) · 2023Article
- Alveolar macrophages in pulmonary alveolar proteinosis: origin, function, and therapeutic strategies.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Autoimmune Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2022Article
- Case Report: The first reported case of pulmonary alveolar proteinosis with myasthenia gravis in a 27-year-old patient.F1000Research · 2022Article
- A Bibliometric Analysis of Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis From 2001 to 2021.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Article
- Rituximab rescue therapy for autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis.Respiratory medicine case reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Rituximab, a monoclonal antibody directed against the B-lymphocyte antigen CD20, has shown promise in several autoimmune disorders. Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) is an autoimmune disorder characterised by autoantibodies to granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). An open-label, proof-of-concept phase II clinical trial was conducted in 10 PAP patients. The intervention consisted of two intravenous infusions of rituximab (1,000 mg) 15 days apart. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid and peripheral blood samples were collected. The primary outcome was improvement in arterial blood oxygenation. Both arterial oxygen tension and alveolar-arterial oxygen tension difference in room air improved in seven out of the nine patients completing the study. Lung function and high-resolution computed tomography scans, which were secondary outcomes, also improved. Peripheral blood CD19+ B-lymphocytes decreased from mean ± sem 15 ± 2% to <0.05% (n = 10) 15 days post-therapy. This decrease persisted for 3 months in all patients; at 6 months, CD19+ B-cells were detected in four out of seven patients (5 ± 2%). Total anti-GM-CSF immunoglobulin (Ig)G levels from baseline to 6 months were decreased in BAL fluids (n = 8) but unchanged in sera (n = 9). In this PAP cohort: 1) rituximab was well-tolerated and effectively ameliorated lung disease; and 2) reduction in anti-GM-CSF IgG levels in the lung correlated with disease changes, suggesting that disease pathogenesis is related to autoantibody levels in the target organ.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.