[Plasmapheresis in autoimmune syndromes. Indications. Results]

Since plasma is largely involved in autoimmune diseases, plasma exchanges have been used to treat these patients. In the first part of this paper the authors review the indications for plasmapheresis, which they divide into two groups: autoimmune diseases proper, and diseases with autoimmune phenomena. In the second part, the results available in the literature are analyzed. In many cases, it is extremely difficult to form an opinion, since the methods vary from one group of workers to the other. Unquestionably, improvement was observed in bullous pemphigus and pemphigoid, in Goodpasture's syndrome, in glomerulonephritis with autoantibodies and in myasthenia. In other cases, dramatic improvement was sometimes observed (notably in some cases of acute polyradiculoneuritis), but the small number of patients in each series makes it impossible to separate the effects of plasma exchanges and those of the immunosuppressive treatment frequently administered concomitantly.