Therapeutic plasma exchange

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled “Therapeutic plasma exchange as a nephrological procedure: a single-center experience” (J Clin Apher. 2005 Dec;20(4):208-16). Authors are Yeo FE, Bohen EM, Yuan CM et al., from the Nephrology Service, National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. In the United States, therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is both performed and requested by a wide range of services, often on an empiric basis (before a diagnosis is established). The authors present a review of the single-case study. Patients were identified from an electronic procedure log that included those patients who received plasmapheresis at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from 1996 to 2003. Between March 1997 and August 2003, 568 TPE treatments were performed in 54 patients. The majority of the diagnoses were either neurologic (48%) or hematologic (37%). Twelve cases were performed empirically (without an established diagnosis) at the request of the referring service, most (7) performed for presumed thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). The most common indication for TPE was neurological disease, which also accounted for the highest proportion of complications. To access the full abstract of the article, click here.