Plasmapheresis in the combined therapy of progressive forms of glomerulonephritis
Moskaleva, E.S.; Ignatova, M.S.; Korneeva, V.A.; Muromtsev, I.V.; Tsvetkova, E.I.; Parubinovskaia, N.M.; Kharina, E.A.; Katysheva, O.V.; Krivonos, A.V.
Terapevticheskii Arkhiv 66(6): 42-45
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0040-3660 PMID: 7940367 Document Number: 439008
29 patients aged 6-16 with glomerulonephritis lasting 4-5 years received multimodality treatment with plasmapheresis as a component. The majority of the patients suffered from primary glomerulonephritis in mesangio- or membrano-proliferative morphological variants. Previous long-term conventional therapy (prednisolone, cytostatics, anticoagulants and antiaggregation drugs) failed. The test course comprised 1-3 plasmapheresis sessions (centrifuge method on [symbol: see text] apparatus), cyclophosphamide or maintenance methyl-prednisolone pulse therapy, heparin and curantil. One-third of the patients achieved remission lasting from 5 months to 3 years, in the other one-third the improvement was as short as 2-4 weeks, and the last one-third appeared non-responders. Improvement of clinical indices occurred in parallel with trends to reduction in the levels of CIC, IgG, B-lymphocytes, T-helpers, inhibition of lymphocyte succinate dehydrogenase activity, better phagocytosis. No complications which may prohibit plasmapheresis use in glomerulonephritis were observed. Adjuvant plasmapheresis use in glomerulonephritis treatment needs further studies.