Infliximab is a medication approved to treat several conditions including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and ankylosing spondylitis. Prior to starting treatment, patients should discuss both benefits and risks of taking infliximab 100 mg injection with your healthcare team. And that way, patients can make an informed decision.
What is infliximab?
Infliximab is a sort of medicine known as biological therapy. It can be prescribed for conditions:
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Crohn’s Disease
- Plaque psoriasis
- Psoriatic arthritis
- ulcerative colitis
- axial spondyloarthritis, including ankylosing spondylitis.
In a few cases, health specialists may prescribe Infliximab Injection for treating certain sorts of vasculitis too. In RA and some other conditions, an excess protein named TNF is developed in the body. This is responsible for causing inflammation, pain, and destruction to your joints. Anti-TNF medicines, such as infliximab, inhibit TNF and scaled-down this inflammation.
Anti-TNF medicines, such as infliximab, are basically not painkillers. They change or resist how your disease affects your body. Your signs and symptoms should start to improve within 2 to 12 weeks of initiating therapy with infliximab.
Who Can Take?
There are some guidelines about when infliximab 100 mg injection can be used. It varies depending on which type of condition you have. You won’t be prescribed infliximab if you haven’t tried certain other suitable medicines first.
Infliximab therapy won’t be initiated if:
- your disease isn’t active
- you haven’t tried other therapies for your disease first
- you have an infection.
Before you’re prescribed the medicine infliximab, health specialists sometimes use a scoring system for evaluating how many of your joints are painful or swollen and how it makes you feel. This favors them to work out how seriously active your arthritis is.
You’ll also require blood tests prior to treatment in order to see whether the medicine is suitable for you.
Your health specialists will also assess whether you’ve had tuberculosis (TB) and hepatitis infections. This is because infliximab 100 mg can increase the probability of these starting up again. In case you test +ve for either of these, you may require therapy prior to starting infliximab.
Your health specialists may also prescribe an HIV test. In case you have HIV, this should be well controlled prior to starting infliximab therapy.
Your health specialists may decide not to prescribe the drug infliximab in case you’ve had or have:
- any active infection, or repeated/serious infections
- multiple sclerosis or there’s history of multiple sclerosis in your immediate family
- cancer
- certain heart conditions
- scarring of the lung tissue, called pulmonary fibrosis.
In case infliximab isn’t suitable, your health specialists will discuss other existing treatment options with you.
Dosage & Administration
The infliximab injection is usually administered through a drip into a vein. This is named an intravenous infusion. It’s usually performed in a hospital and takes around a couple of hours. You’ll need to wait for another hour or two prior to leave in case you experience any side effects.
Recommended Dose for Crohn’s Disease: 5 mg/kg at 0, 2 and 6 weeks, then every 8 weeks. Some adults who initially respond to therapy may benefit from enhancing the dose to 10 mg per kg if they later lose their response.
Recommended Dose for Pediatric Crohn’s Disease: 5 mg/kg at 0, 2 and 6 weeks, then every 8 weeks.
Recommended Dose for Ulcerative Colitis: 5 mg/kg at 0, 2 and 6 weeks, then every 8 weeks.
Recommended Dose for Pediatric Ulcerative Colitis: 5 mg/kg at 0, 2 and 6 weeks, then every 8 weeks.
Recommended Dose for Rheumatoid Arthritis: In conjunction with drug methotrexate, 3 mg/kg at 0, 2 and 6 weeks, then every 8 weeks. A few patients may benefit from enhancing the dose up to 10 mg per kg or treating as often as every 4 weeks.
Recommended Dose for Ankylosing Spondylitis: 5 mg/kg at 0, 2 and 6 weeks, then every 6 weeks.
Recommended Dose for Psoriatic Arthritis and Plaque Psoriasis: 5 mg/kg at 0, 2 and 6 weeks, then every 8 weeks.
Once you’ve been on the therapy for a while, the infliximab infusion may take less time. Because it’s a long-term therapy, it’s necessary to keep having your infusions of infliximab, even if it doesn’t seem to be effective at first. You’ll also should keep taking it when your signs and symptoms start to improve, to help keep the disease under control. In a few cases, you may take the biosimilar as an injection instead.
Infliximab Side effects and Risks
Like all medicines, infliximab can sometimes cause some side effects. Some commonly reported side effects due to infliximab injection include:
- a blocked or runny nose
- headaches
- dizziness
- flushing
- a rash
- stomach pain
- indigestion
- feeling sick
A rapid or irregular heartbeat is also quite common; you should discuss with your health specialist if this happens to you.
Because this medication affects the immune system, it can be responsible for making you more likely to catch infections. In rare cases, the body might not develop enough of the blood cells that help to fight infections or stop bleeding.
Inform your rheumatology health specialist straight away in case you develop any signs or symptoms of infection. These include a fever or sore throat, or any other new signs and symptoms that concern you.
If any of these signs and symptoms are severe, your treatment may need to be interrupted. Your health specialist may also recommend that you temporarily interrupt infliximab therapy if you're on antibiotics.
You also need to see your health specialist if you develop chickenpox or shingles, or in case you come into contact with anyone who has chickenpox or shingles. These infections may be severe in case you’re on infliximab 100 mg. You may require antiviral therapy, and your treatment may be stopped until you’re better.
Some individuals may have a -ve reaction to the infusion. This is more likely while on or soon after the initial few infusions.
Storage & Price
Store the vials of infliximab between 2 & 8 deg C. The infusion should start within 3 hours following the preparation and the solution need not be stored for reuse (because of the potential for microbiological hazard, and the absence of any preservative).
The infliximab price in India is absolutely less than other countries. The prices of infliximab typically fluctuates from generic to brand-name medicinal products. The generic forms of infliximab tend to cost very less than their available equivalents. The generic forms of the biologic drug infliximab appear to be just as safe and effective as the brand name version. Kindly connect to us at TOLL-FREE: 1800-889-1064 to get this medicinal product authentically.
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