[Therapeutic use of intravenous immunoglobulins in the antiphospholipid syndrome]

J C Piette1, D Lê Thi Huong, B Wechsler

  • 1Service de Médecine Interne, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris. jean-charles.piette@psl.ap-hop-paris.fr

Annales De Medecine Interne
|July 18, 2000
PubMed

Although experience remains limited and uncontrolled, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) therapy probably has a place in the management of selected patients with the antiphospholipid syndrome. It seems effective for the prevention of recurrent pregnancy losses when conventional strategies using subcutaneous heparin and low-dose aspirin have failed. IVIg are currently investigated in the treatment of recurrent in vitro fertilization failure associated with antiphospholipid antibodies. In patients with severe thrombocytopenia, IVIg usually induce a prompt but transient remission. Finally, IVIg associated with steroids and heparin might improve survival in the rare but life-threatening catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome.

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