[Hemorheology and H.E.L.P. in multi-infarct dementia]

Some papers report that the effect of heparin-mediated extracorporeal LDL less than cholesterol, LP(a), triglycerides, fibrinogen greater than precipitation (H.E.L.P.) in cardiovascular disease may results from an influence on the above-mentioned parameters. Hence, this method has been applied in multi-infarct dementia (MID), where fibrinogen, whole blood and plasma viscosity and red cell transit time (RCTT) are increased. The selection of patients was based on DMS-3, on NINCDS/ADRDA criteria and on the Hachinski Ischemic Stroke Scale. All the patients (n = 14) were examined magnet resonance imaging. Fibrinogen, cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, LP(a), RCTT and plasma and whole blood viscosity were determined prior to, and after each two H.E.L.P. procedures. Fibrinogen was lowered (in a comparison of the data prior to the first and following the second plasmapheresis) from 526.4 +/- 114 to 314.1 +/- 80.1 mg/dl (p less than 0.01), cholesterol from 210.8 +/- 76.8 to 131.3 +/- 38.2 mg/dl (p less than 0.01), LDL from 125 +/- 53 mg/dl to 63.6 +/- 25.7 mg/dl (p less than 0.01), LP(a) from 26.2 +/- 13.2 to 12.0 +/- 9.5 mg/dl (p less than 0.01), HDL from 31.7 +/- 6.3 to 29.7 +/- 5.6 mg/dl (no significance), RCTT from 14.4 +/- 2.8 to 10.9 +/- 0.9 (p less than 0.01), whole blood viscosity (low shear rate) from 11.64 +/- 1.7 to 8.74 +/- 1.4 mPa/sec (p less than 0.01) and (high shear rate) from 5.38 +/- 0.58 to 4.28 +/- 0.83 mPa/sec (p less than 0.01). Plasma viscosity decreased from 1.51 +/- 0.12 mPa/sec to 1.25 +/- 0.1 mPa/sec (p less than 0.05). In cases of MID the implementation of H.E.L.P. therefore enabled an alteration of the hemorheological profile which has so far not been achieved by any hemorheologically active substance to a comparable degree and in comparable time.