| Theme | Management of Systemic Diseases with Blood Purification : Aute and Chronic Stage of Diseases | |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Plasmapheresis for skin diseases (pemphigus etc.) | |
| Publish Date | 2001/03 | |
| Author | Reiko Takimoto | Department of Dermatology, School of Medicine, Juntendo University Urayasu Hospital |
| Author | Kenji Takamori | Department of Dermatology, School of Medicine, Juntendo University Urayasu Hospital |
| [ Summary ] | Blood purification is presently being utilized quite succesfully in the treatment of autoimmune bullous diseases such as pemphigus, bullus pemphigoid and epidermolysis bullosa aquisita, some collagen diseases such as systemic erythematoses and dermatomyositis, and also in the case of severe drug eruption. In particular, apheresis therapy has been found to be useful for patients who has been unresponsive to conventional therapy and for whom conventional drugs were contraindicated due to complications. Within the field of dermatology, blood purification has been performed using three techniques: either plasma exchange, membrane filtration or immune adsorption. Recently, however, a double filtration method (DFPP), one of the membrane filtration techniques, has been utilized more frequently than the other methods because of its possible clinical advantages. In this paper the usefulness of apheresis and the most effective method of DFPP in the treatment of pemphigus are reported. |
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