Drug‐resistant bronchial asthma successfully treated with plasma exchange

Abstract

Two patients suffering from allergic bronchial asthma who showed no improvement despite six and four weeks, respectively, of drug therapy were successfully treated with therapeutic plasma exchange. The first patient had no attacks over a period of five months, and the other patient had none for over one year. Although this report only deals with single observations, we believe that therapeutic plasma exchange is of particular value for patients with severe allergic bronchial asthma because it eliminates in addition to immunocomplexes other substances, including antigens, rapidly from the blood. This means that it is possible to directly intervene in the pathomechanism. However, further investigations are necessary in order to corroborate this successful therapy.

Therapeutic Apheresis in the Treatment of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome in View of Pathophysiological Aspects

“…Other authors went one step further. They reported successful treatment of HUS using therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) (1–6). In 1986, Korec et al.…”

“…The therapeutic apheresis methods that are introduced in HUS as a supportive therapy are TPE and IA with protein A columns; both methods are described elsewhere (5,6,78–80). The rationale for the use of TA in HUS is discussed controversially because of the limited and/or conflicting data available in the literature.…”

“…Introduction of acute dialysis did reduce early mortality in HUS, but in many cases it could not prevent a varying degree of organ system damage, such as renal insufficiency requiring dialysis. Therapeutic apheresis (TA) has been shown to be an exciting tool in the management of this disease (1–7).…”

Successful treatment of a patient with severe atopic dermatitis and severe asthma by centrifugal therapeutic plasma exchange

“…Previous studies using plasma exchange have shown improvement in both drug-resistant bronchial asthma and recalcitrant AD 12 13. Our treatment in a severe atopic adult male with TPE has also shown clear immediate but surprisingly sustained benefit both subjectively and objectively.…”

Plasma exchange: an option for the treatment of life-threatening status asthmaticus in pregnancy

“…1). Based on theoretical grounds, our previous unpublished experience and anecdotal reports [1, 2], we attempted to eliminate circulating antigens and/or immunoglobulin E (IgE) which were supposed to be responsible for the sustained asthmatic response. Informed consent was obtained from the patient′s husband.…”