Abstract
Intermittent flow centrifugation system was utilized in the management of 17 patients with IC diseases. 14 out of 14 patients that had high levels of ICs prior to plasmapheresis showed both clinical and immunochemical evidence of improvement with plasmapheresis.
3 patients had no evidence of circulating ICs prior to plasmapheresis: in these cases no apparent result was acheived after the apheretic therapy. Although the striking correlation between IC removal and clinical result is not a formal proof of responsibility of CIC in the pathogenesis of the disease, it is suggested that quantitative determinatin of CICs (utilizing several different recognition units) may be a useful parameter in the decision to apply plasmapheresis in the therapy of selected autoimmune diseases.
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