A Cochrane review [Abstract] 1 included four studies: one on high dose cyclosporine with 72 patients and three on low dose cyclosporine. The first study found that patients receiving high dose cyclosporine (median 7.6 mg/kg/day) had statistically significant clinical improvement at 12 weeks compared to placebo patients. None of the low dose studies found any statistically significant benefit for clinical improvement or induction of remission for low dose cyclosporine treatment (5 mg/kg/day) used by itself or in combination with corticosteroids compared to placebo. Cyclosporine was associated with a significantly higher proportion of adverse events and withdrawals due to adverse events relative to placebo.
Comment: The quality of evidence is downgraded by study quality (more than 20% loss to follow up) and by imprecise results (limited study size for each comparison).
Primary/Secondary Keywords