Therapeutic Plasma Exchange in Patients with Grade 2–3 Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation‐associated Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura: A Ten‐year Experience

Fotini Christidou, Athanasia Athanasiadou, Panagiotis Kalogiannidis, Taïsir Natse, Gerasimos Bamichas, Riant Salum, Ioanna Sakellari, Αthanasios Fassas, Kostas Sombolos

Therapeutic Apheresis and Dialysis · 2003 · 18 citations · 15 references

Concepts

Abstract

In the present retrospective study we report our 10-year experience with therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) in 18 patients with grade 2-3 hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT)-associated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). During TPE a mean total quantity of 26.5 +/- 15.1 L of plasma was exchanged. Five patients (27.7%) had a complete response eight patients (44.4%) had a partial response while five patients (27.7%) died during TPE treatment. Among the survivors, relapse of TTP occured in three patients (23%) and although these patients were treated again with TPE, all died. First-year survival rate was 41.2%. Our results indicate that TPE may be effective in the treatment of some patients with grade 2-3 HSCT-associated TTP.

References

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