Long-term intensive donor plasmapheresis under conditions investigated in this study is safe. All donors weighing > or = 70 kg are safely able to donate 850 ml of plasma in each session up to 60 times per year, provided that they are carefully monitored.

Regular donor plasmapheresis of up to 45 l of plasma per year appears to be as safe as more moderate plasmapheresis programmes, with respect to the parameters analysed in this study. Individuals donating under these conditions did not develop impaired humoral and cellular immunity, iron store depletion, or increased cardiovascular risk with regard to established biochemical risk markers. Prospective studies are required to determine more exactly than in retrospective analyses the reasons why donors withdraw from plasmapheresis programmes.

Adenosine deaminase (ADA) has been assayed in plasma, erythrocytes, and lymphocytes from 29 patients with haematological and autoimmune diseases. ADA activity was uniformly low in erythrocytes and lymphocytes from patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma (p < 0.001). High levels of ADA activity was found in plasma, erythrocytes, and lymphocytes from patients with myeloid leukemia (p < 0.001). ADA was high in plasma but low in erythrocytes and lymphocytes from patients with autoimmune diseases treated with immunosuppressive drugs (p < 0.05). 4 adults with congenital immunodeficiency showed decreased ADA activity. In the control group of normal blood donors we found a 34-year-old female with low ADA activity in plasma, erythrocytes, and lymphocytes without any immunological abnormalities. This is the 3rd case of a healthy individual deficient for ADA. 1 patient with Osier’s disease and high ADA activity in erythrocytes showed the importance of the purine salvage enzyme not only in lymphocytes.

No abstract

T he pr o tec tive my ocard ial effect of 3 d iffe rent cardio p legic solutions -Br etschneider (HTPI. St . Thomas' Hospital Sol ution (T HOM), Epp endor f so lut io n (EPP) -was investigated in 15 dogs put on extreccrporeet circulation 12 hours of cardiac ischem ia, 3 7 ml /kg card io plegic solution every 30 minutes at 4°el. After the onset of cardio ptegic perfu sion, electric card iac activity was significa ntl y p ro lo nged in the EPP gro up (3 minutesl as com pared with t he HTP and T HO M groups (1.5 minutes). A myocard ial temperature of 15 DC was reached after 5 minutes in EPP as opposed to 3 minutes in HTP and THOM. This can be relate d to a low perfusion rat e in EPP (130 ml/m inutes vs 286 ml/ minutes in HTP and t THOM) due to the high viscosity of t he EPP solution 19.56 centls tok es lest ! vs 1.79 est in HTP and 1.62 est in THOM at 4 DC.After 2 hour s of ische mia, there was marked hyperem ia, low myocard ial 0 2-consumption {MV02 J but no lactate produ ction. After 30 minutes of blood reperfusion, MV0 2 reached the norm al values of the empty bea ting heart in HTP and THOM whereas MV0 2 in EPP stayed low at 1.79 ml/100 g/m inute.In all groups, there was a com parabl e derangement in the autoregulat ion of myocardia l blood flow (MBFI after ischemia ; the init ially close correlation between left ventricular (LVI function and MBF was no longer present.In all groups, postischemic developed peak LV pressure as well as dp/dtma::o: were d iminished by about 40 % at an enddiast olic volume of 30ml.In co nclusion: In co ntrast to results ob tained on isolated hearts, a mod erate functional metabolic impairme nt is observed irrespect ive of the card ioplegic solutio n used when the study is performed under surgical cond itions with ext racorporeal byp ass.