Safety and effect of rituximab treatment in pediatric demyelinating disease

Rituximab is a B-cell therapy that reduces relapse rate in adult demyelinating diseases, but there is limited knowledge of clinical treatment experience in pediatric neuromyelitis optica (NMO) and multiple sclerosis (MS). Demyelinating diseases in children can have high morbidity, especially in children with NMO with optic neuritis causing rapid progression to blindness and incomplete or no recovery from steroids, plasmapheresis and intravenous immunoglobulin therapy. Our study investigates the safety and effect of rituximab in children with NMO and MS.