A 12 year old, 38 kg, mix-breed, intact male dog presented with a 20 day history of clinical signs consistent with hyperviscosity syndrome secondary to multiple myeloma. The dog received three double filtration plasmapheresis treatments on day 0, 7 and 22 after presentation. A significant (p<0.05) reduction in serum total protein, alpha-2 and gamma globulins was found following each treatment. ...

A patient with well documented cyclic neutropenia (CN) was given chronic lithium therapy as well as a short course of plasmapheresis with therapeutic intention. While on lithium therapy. an increase in the amplitude of the granulocyte oscillations was observed. but recurrent agranulocytotic periods persisted. A 2-wk course of plasmapheresis (total exchange 1 7 liters) resulted in a gradual decr...

Acute pancreatitis is a potentially life-threatening disease. If the diagnosis and the treatment are not prompt, it can rapidly evolve to a medical emergency. Severe hypertriglyceridemia, defined as above 1000 mg/dl, is the third most common cause of acute pancreatitis. Conventional management includes fat dietary restriction and pharmacological treatment; however, these measures take time to b...

Proliferative glomerulonephritis with monoclonal IgG deposits (PGNMID) is a rare and recently identified disease with a poor prognosis irrespective of the treatment. Recently, the possibility of recurrent or de novo PGNMID after kidney transplantation has been reported, which is associated with a better prognosis compared to PGNMID on native kidneys. Nevertheless, at present, due to the very fe...

A 20-year-old girl first notice bilateral ocular muscle weakness in 2001. Two months later, she developed acute muscle paralysis and respiratory failure which required ventilation. Serum anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies and repetitive nerve stimulation test was positive and consistent with myasthenia gravis (MG). CT scan thorax revealed thymic enlargement and she underwent a video assiste...

In the United States, approximately 750 000 cases of severe sepsis occur each year, and more than 210000 cases result in death. Although the prevalence of sepsis continues to increase, the mortality rate of 28% to 50% remains unchanged. Sepsis causes disturbances of homeostasis that lead to excessive coagulation, systemic inflammation, and impaired fibrinolysis. In addition, blood flow to organ...

Therapeutic plasmapheresis has been enthusiastically applied in recent years to a number of disease entities associated with renal failure. It seems reasonable to attempt removal of intravascular macroglobulins or immune complexes by this mechanism; however, multiple modalities of therapy are often employed virtually simultaneously, confounding the delineation of successful treatment. Two case ...

A patient with well documented cyclic neutropenia (CN) was given chronic lithium therapy as well as a short course of plasmapheresis with therapeutic intention. While on lithium therapy. an increase in the amplitude of the granulocyte oscillations was observed. but recurrent agranulocytotic periods persisted. A 2-wk course of plasmapheresis (total exchange 1 7 liters) resulted in a gradual decr...