ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Minerva Pediatrica 2015 June;67(3):219-26

Copyright © 2015 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Effectiveness of pidotimod in combination with bacterial lysates in the treatment of the PFAPA (periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis, and cervical adenitis) syndrome

Buongiorno A. ¹, Pierossi N. ² ✉

¹ Dipartimento di Otorinolaringologia, Università di Firenze, Firenze, Italia; ² Unità di Otorinolaringologia Pediatrica, Dipartimento di Neuroscienze AUO A. Meyer, Firenze, Italia

AIM: PFAPA (periodic fever, aphthous stomatitis, pharyngitis, and cervical adenitis) syndrome is the most common autoinflammatory syndrome in pediatrics, accepted as an hyperimmune condition. Pidotimod is a molecule with immunomodulatory activity on both innate and adaptive immune responses; it also has the capacity to modulate the function of the respiratory epithelial cells through the activation of a NK-KB pathway which would involve the host-virus interaction. Moreover, the proven beneficial effect of Pidotimod in enhancing the immune response during vaccination, and its benefits in the prevention of respiratory tract infections, should be noted.
METHODS: A joint combination of Pidotimod and bacterial lysates was used to treat 37 children with a clinical diagnosis of PFAPA; within the end of the first year of therapy, the healing rate of PFAPA symptoms was 67.5% (25 children), with a 10.8% (4 cases) still in complete remission within the end of the second year of follow-up.
RESULTS: It is important to highlight that 29 children (78.3%) had benefitted from this therapy, in terms of healing, with a marked decrease in the incidence of fever from a total of 360 to 106 episodes, and episodes of periodic fever occurring almost 4 times less frequently. The use of Pidotimod determined a significant reduction of surgical tonsillectomy’s treatment.
CONCLUSION: This approach had a strong impact on the children’s quality of life; a significant decrement in the use of antipyretic drugs, as well as a lower rate of antibiotic prescription, were also noted. It also had a dramatic impact on families’ lives, because the treatment lowers the number of absences of family members from work or school/kindergarten.