Lymphocytapheresis in the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris.

Psoriasis is a common autoimmune chronic inflammatory skin disease that affects approximately 2% of the world's population; fundamental for its immunopathogenic mechanism is secretion of type 1 (Th1) cytokines by T cells and their activation. Since cytapheresis has been widely applied to autoimmune disorders, emphasizing the recently reported results of granulocyte and monocyte adsorption apheresis in psoriasis, a small series of psoriasis vulgaris (PV) patients underwent lymphocytapheresis (LCA) with the aim to remove lymphocytes. Five patients were submitted to weekly LCA.

Interferon-alpha activity in a case of severe autoimmune lymphoproliferative disease.

Autoimmune lymphoproliferative disease (ALD) is a rare familial disorder. Clinical and laboratory features of this disease include a generalized lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly, increased levels of circulating CD3+ with low levels of CD4+, CD8+ T-cells, and autoimmune phenomena, characteristics that the autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome (ALPS) have in common. Treatment usually consists of different supportive therapies.

Rapid reduction of platelet numbers in thrombocytosis.

Thrombocytosis has been reported during chemotherapy with gemcitabine (GEM). A 71-year-old male patient who developed asymptomatic thrombocytosis (1,749 x 10(3)/microl), secondary to GEM chemotherapy for lung carcinoma, was submitted to therapeutic plateletpheresis (TP). We adapted the software of the productive dual-needle plateletpheresis of our cell separator in order to reduce the procedure time and the plasma volume harvested.

Interferon-alpha in the idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome: consideration of five cases.

The therapy of the idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) is largely directed at controlling symptoms and preventing organ damage. Universally accepted therapeutic protocols for HES are still lacking. Patients are treated by different drugs and drug doses, and therapy appears to be mostly aimed at treating symptoms.

Mycobacterial infection in HIV+ patients detected with a new immunological method (TB test).

Antibody response to antigen A60 (a mycobacterial antigen) was evaluated in ELISA in 18 HIV+ subjects with clinical and cultural evidences of mycobacterial infections, in 10 HIV+ subjects without Mycobacterial infections and in 22 healthy donors. We found higher levels of specific IgG in the HIV+ patients with Mycobacterial infections (mean 179.2 +/- 83 U) compared to the values of the donors (mean 92.