Treatment of severe hypercholesterolaemia by LDL-apheresis

The most severe forms of hypercholesterolaemia scarcely respond to diet and conventional drugs administration and need, therefore, alternative treatments. Terapeutic Plasma Exchange demonstrated an improved survival of subjects with Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH) in spite of its limitations. Semi-selective and selective techniques have been developed in order to remove LDL cholesterol alone. We studied the efficiency in LDL removal both of membrane filtration as of dextrane sulphate adsorption on 14 FH patients, performing 302 procedures. Cholesterol extraction with the different methods was in the range of 40-65%. Mean cholesterol level was reduced from 7% to 64% depending on the protocol used. The procedures were all performed on an outpatient basis. Side effects occurred rarely and were always of not serious degree. The short and the middle term clinical effects of LDL-Apheresis are then evaluated.