Therapeutic Plasma Exchange in Tehran Between 2011 and 2014

The goal of therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is to remove autoantibodies, pathogenic molecules, immune complexes, toxins, high concentration lipoproteins, and pathological proteins. We aimed to present the most common indication of TPE and rate of admission to the intensive care unit. From 2011 to 2014, our retrospective study was conducted including 1069 inpatients from the Tehran Blood Transfusion Center, which was responsible for performing therapeutic apheresis in all 122 hospitals of Tehran. The patients, based on their TPE indication, were classified into five groups: hematological and oncological, neurological, renal, rheumatological diseases, and all the remaining diseases. We performed 6329 procedures of TPE on 1069 inpatients. Of the patients, 479 (44.8%) were male and 590 (55.2%) female. Their age varied from a minimum of 2 years to the maximum of 93 years. Overall, the mean of TPE sessions for each patient was 5.92 ± 3.9; 415 (38.8%) patients were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). ASFA categories I/II indications were considered an appropriate request for TPE, and 82.97% (887) of all TPE were suitable. The most frequent categories of TPE indications are as follows: neurological, hematological, and renal diseases. Class I/II indications in the neurological diseases, myasthenia gravis (21.7%), Guillain-Barré disease (21%), and multiple sclerosis (13.3%), were the most prevalent. In the hematological category, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) (14.1%) was observed to be greater than the other indications. We observed that the most prevalent illnesses are neurological (myasthenia gravis), hematological (TTP), and renal.