Rationale: Myocarditis is a rare but potentially fatal complication of Still's disease (about 7% of total cases).
Patient concerns: A 42-year-old woman was admitted to our ward with high-grade fever, rash and polyarthralgia, lasting since 4 weeks and rapidly complicated by MAS and acute heart failure.
Diagnoses: Adult Onset Still's Disease rapidly developping macrophage activation syndrome and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, further complicated by iperacute myocarditis with cardiac arrest.
Interventions: After failure of conventional therapies (steroids plus cyclosporine and then biological therapy with Anakinra 100 mg/day), the patient was treated with anakinra 100 mg sc 1 fl 4 times a day.
Outcomes: Fast clinical and laboratoristic improvement and subsequent disease remission with complete recovery of cardiac function.
Lessons: This is the first case report in which high doses of Anakinra have been used to treat a refractory AOSD complicated by MAS and myocarditis. In AOSD complicated by life-threatening conditions, probably we need to consider aggressive therapeutic approaches with higher doses of Il-1 receptor blocker to switch off the hyper-inflammation.