[Effect of cryoapheresis on the course of immune complex diseases]

The paper is concerned with an analysis of the results of the method of cryoheparinoprecipitation of plasma proteins in patients with immune complex pathology. The essence of the method is that in plasma cooling cryofibrinogens, cryoglobulins, immune complexes and other components of the complement system aggregate and precipitate. The process is potentiated by adding heparin to the plasma. After removal of cryoproteins the plasma is frozen and returned to a patient during a session of plasmapheresis. The method makes it possible to give up the use of various protein preparations as substitutes. It was applied to 90 patients: 52 females and 38 males aged 15 to 64. The total number of plasmapheresis sessions was 831, an average of 6 sessions per patient; repeated sessions were performed in 20 patients in different time-intervals. Indications for therapy were the absence of a response to routine drug therapeutic methods for a long period of time and steroid-related complications. Cryoapheresis was applied to 18 patients with hemorrhagic vasculitis. Signs of the abdominal, dermal and articular syndrome were eliminated in all the patients; the urinary syndrome was retained in half of the cases necessitating other therapeutic modalities. A CIC level investigated by a method of precipitation with 3.5% polyethylene glycol was not a criterion of assessment of the gravity of diseases: in cases of its increase before therapy initiation there was a clear tendency to a decrease and normalization by the end of treatment. In hemostasis investigation hypercoagulation activation and hyperfibrinogenemia were revealed in most of the patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)