We report a patient with malignant exophthalmos associated with multiple myeloma which showed no evidence of direct orbital involvement of plasma cells. This exophthalmos had similarities with Graves' ophthalmopathy, but the patient had no detectable autoimmune thyroid diseases. Plasmapheresis was effective not only for the treatment of heart and renal failure due to the myeloma kidney but also...

Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is a leading cause of end-stage renal disease and has a high recurrence rate after kidney transplantation, attributed to a circulating permeability factor. Plasmapheresis is the treatment of choice after recurrence to remove the circulating factor. We present a case of recurrent FSGS 6 years after transplantation. It is instructive because proteinuria d...

A 70-year-old woman with thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) was treated with plasmapheresis using fresh frozen plasma as a fluid replacement. Complete recovery and lasting remission were observed. It appears that plasmapheresis combined with massive fresh frozen plasma can be an effective mode of treatment for patients who were, otherwise, refractory to conventional therapy.

OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to report the maternal and perinatal outcome in patients with severe red cell alloimmunization in pregnancy who were treated with immunomodulation therapy. STUDY DESIGN This was a retrospective multicenter case series. Patients with a history of early second-trimester fetal loss secondary to severe maternal red cell alloimmunization or patients with ma...

In autoimmune conditions affecting the central and peripheral CNS as well as in multiple sclerosis (MS), the inflammatory syndrome is present with the onset of this disease. The present paper aimed to highlight the inflammatory syndrome based on the leukergia test, the total blood viscosity test, blood filterability test as well as on other tests. The early instituting of the therapeutic plasma...

Several factors indicate that autoimmune mechanisms may play a part in the aetiology of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. At the onset of the disease in 10 children (aged 11-16 years) plasmapheresis was performed four times over one to two weeks. Seventeen age-matched children with the same clinical features served as controls. The C-peptide concentrations at onset were the same in the two g...

Plasmapheresis has been used widely in the treatment of myasthenia gravis and also in symptomatic thymectomized patients with short-term clinical improvement. But the utility of preoperative plasmapheresis in the outcome has not been widely studied. The authors analyzed its impact in the surgical outcome of thymic tumors with myasthenia gravis. We studied a total of 19 patients, who were operat...

INTRODUCTION Hypertriglyceridemia is the third most common cause of acute pancreatitis. The current evidence on the management of hypertriglyceridemia-induced pancreatitis (HTGP) is mainly derived from case series. It has been suggested that insulin, and plasmapheresis have a role in the management of acute HTGP. We present a retrospective review of patients seen at a community-teaching hospita...

Recipients of licensed anthrax vaccine (AVA; Biothrax) could serve as a source of hyperimmune plasma and immunoglobulin for therapy and prophylaxis. We measured serum antibodies during serial weekly to biweekly plasmapheresis in 38 individuals previously vaccinated with 4 to 27 doses of AVA. Immunoglobulin G (IgG) to protective antigen (PA) and toxin neutralization assay (TNA) antibody levels w...

Major resection of cirrhotic livers can result in hepatic failure, but no supportive treatment has been found to be generally effective. We successfully treated a 63-year-old woman with post-hepatectomy liver failure with plasmapheresis. Following right hepatectomy, the initial postoperative recovery of liver function was favorable, except for ascites. One month later, however, the amount of dr...