In Canada, intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) use has increased by 115% over the past 7 to 8 years. Given this increased usage, Canadian Blood Services and the National Advisory Committee on Blood and Blood Products for Canada identified the need to develop and disseminate evidence-based guidelines to facilitate appropriate IVIG use. As a result, guidelines for IVIG use in hematologic and neuro...

Intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIGs) have not yet demonstrated robust evidence in the benefit for treatment of sepsis. In spite of multiple clinical trials performed with IVIG in sepsis, it remains an experimental therapy for this severe condition. Nonetheless, these trials do not address a number of potential confounding factors, concerning both the patient and the IVIG preparations, which coul...

OBJECTIVES To test lower dose immunoglobulins as a maintenance treatment in a patient with refractory polymyositis. METHODS In a patient with longstanding refractory polymyositis, intravenous (IV) immunoglobulin treatment was introduced at a standard dose (2 g/kg monthly). After a few treatment courses, doses were reduced to 0.8 g/kg monthly, allowing perfusion over one single day. RESULTS ...

Since the introduction of plasma exchange as a treatment for Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) patients, treatment related fluctuations have been found to occur in about 10% of the patients. These fluctuations are considered additional evidence of the beneficial effect of plasma exchange. In this report the occurrence of such treatment related fluctuations is described in the 147 patients who took ...

Polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM) are inflammatory muscular diseases of unknown cause. An immune mechanism may cause these inflammatory myopathies.'2 The mainstay of therapy in inflammatory myopathies is corticosteroids.3 In patients who are resistant to corticosteroids, many therapies are available: immunosuppressive drugs, plasmapheresis, or total body irradiation.4 These therapies a...

Incomplete Kawasaki disease (iKD) is considered to be a less complete form of Kawasaki disease (cKD), and several differences in the laboratory presentations of iKD and cKD have been noted. We investigated serum procalcitonin levels in patients with iKD, cKD, and other febrile diseases (a control group). Seventy-seven patients with cKD, 24 with iKD, and 41 controls admitted to our hospital from...