Comparison of combination therapy of prednisolone and cyclosporine with corticosteroid pulse therapy in Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada disease

Purpose: To compare the efficacy and safety of a combination therapy of prednisolone and cyclosporine and corticosteroid pulse therapy in Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada (VKH) disease. Study design: A prospective, multicenter, randomized, non-inferiority trial. Methods: Patients of new-onset acute VKH disease at 11 centers in Japan between 2014 and 2018 were randomized to a combination (oral prednisolone 60 mg daily with gradual taper-off to 35 mg/day and cyclosporine 3 mg/kg/day) and corticosteroid (methylprednisolone 1000 mg for 3 days followed by oral prednisolone) groups, and were followed for 1 year. Results: Thirty-four were assigned to the combination and thirty-six patients to the corticosteroid group. Recurrence/worsening risk was 0.15 (95% confidence-interval [CI] 0.03–0.27) in the combination group and 0.25 (95% CI 0.11–0.39) in the corticosteroid group, with a risk difference of − 0.10 (90% CI − 0.27 to 0.06), demonstrating non-inferiority of the combination group with a non-inferiority margin of 0.20 (P = 0.0013). Serious adverse events occurred in three patients (two with hyponatremia and one with severe headaches) in the combination group and none in the corticosteroid group. Sunset glow fundus grades and cataract rates at 1 year were 0.57 (95% CI 0.42–71) and 4.3% in the combination group and 0.91 (95% CI 0.78–1.04) and 34.0% in the corticosteroid group, respectively. Conclusions: Combination therapy was noninferior to corticosteroid therapy with respect to recurrence/worsening risk. Notably, the recurrence/worsening risk, sunset glow fundus grade, and cataract rate were lower in the combination group than in the corticosteroid group.