Plasmapheresis for the treatment of hypertriglyceridemia has previously been performed in patients with sudden onset severe hypertriglyceridemia and acute pancreatitis; however, only a few reports of this procedure have been published. We report here on a case showing severe hypertriglyceridemia during asparaginase (Asp) treatment for acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), and give an overview of a lipid-lowering apheresis therapy. To prevent the complication of pancreatitis due to hypertriglyceridemia, we performed plasma exchange (PE) three times using fresh frozen plasma. PE remarkably reduced both serum triglyceride and total cholesterol levels from 5430 mg/dL to 403 mg/dL and from 623 mg/dL to 204 mg/dL, respectively. The causes of severe hyperlipidemia in this patient were considered to include: the Asp treatment for ALL, and a genetic background with a heterozygote of familial lipoprotein lipase (LPL) defect syndrome, because the patient's plasma LPL level after intravenous heparin injection was low at 137 ng/mL. Hence, PE using fresh frozen plasma may be useful not only to remove lipoproteins, but also to supply defective factors, such as LPL, in similar cases.
We report a 66-year-old man with chronic hepatitis caused by hepatitis type C virus of genotype-1b and high-viral-load combined with cryoglobulinemia and advanced diabetic nephropathy in whom we successfully achieved viral removal and eradication by DFPP (VRAD). The dose of PEG-interferon was reduced to 70 mg/week due to thrombocytopenia. Rivavirin was discontinued at day 21 due to anemia. Even with treatment of PEG-interferon alone, the condition was judged to be sustained viral remission at the end of the observation. This is a successful report of VRAD in a combined case of diabetic and HCV-related cryoglobulinnephropathy with nephrotic syndrome. The therapeutic effect of IFN seemed to be efficiently enhanced by concomitant DFPP (VRAD therapy).
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