BACKGROUND Resistance to intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) occurs in 10-20% of patients with Kawasaki disease (KD). The risk of resistance is about two-fold higher in patients with elevated gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) levels. We sought to understand the biological mechanisms underlying IVIG resistance in patients with elevated GGT levels. METHOD We explored the association between elevat...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) in toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), parameters that may affect response to treatment, and the effect of different IVIG batches on Fas-mediated cell death. DESIGN Multicenter retrospective analysis of 48 consecutive TEN patients treated with IVIG. SETTING Fourteen university hospital dermatology centers in Europ...

Penicillin, clindamycin, and intravenous immune globulin (Venoglobulin-S; IVIG) alone and in combination were studied in a murine model of group A streptococcal necrotizing fasciitis. As assessed by bacterial clearance, treatment with IVIG was not significantly different from no treatment. All treatment regimens that contained penicillin or clindamycin were more effective (P<.05) than no treatm...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES About 10-15% of Kawasaki disease (KD) is refractory to intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy. This study was designed to investigate the predicting factors for refractory KD. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We reviewed retrospectively the clinical records of 77 patients with typical KD admitted at Wonju Christian Hospital from January, 2005, to December, 2008. The variance ...

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) treatment is shown to be effective in a selected group of patients with a chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP). The proportion of patients that improve after IVIg treatment varies between studies. Because 40% of a group of IVIg treated CIDP patients needed intermittent IVIg infusions to maintain their improved clinical condition, it is expec...

Adjuvant high dose IVIgs are being used increasingly in a range of immune-mediated and auto-immune diseases. Although numerous immunomodulatory mechanisms have been suggested, the exact mechanisms of action are poorly understood. The efficacy of IVIg in certain diseases has been proven in clinical trials, in so far as IVIg is approved as the therapy of choice for Kawasaki syndrome and idiopathi...

Reported are the reduction of anti-HLA antibody levels and improvement of transplant rates by intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Between 1997 and 2000, a total of 101 adult patients with ESRD who were highly sensitized to HLA antigens (panel reactive antibody [PRA] > or =50% monthly for 3 mo) enrolled onto an NIH-sponsored trial (...

OBJECTIVES Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) has demonstrated improvement in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) patients in placebo controlled trials. However, IVIG is also much more expensive than alternative treatments such as corticosteroids. The objective of the paper is to evaluate, from a Canadian perspective, the cost-effectiveness of IVIG compared to corticosteroid...

OBJECTIVE To determine the impact of therapeutic infusion of IV immunoglobulin (IVIg) on John Cunningham virus antibody (JCV Ab) serostatus and level in serum. METHODS We carried out a retrospective analysis of serum levels of JCV Ab among STRATIFY-2 trial enrollees from 2 multiple sclerosis centers who were exposed to IVIg during the trial. For the subset of eligible patients, we estimated m...