Experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) in a rat model of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Rats were pretreated with 0 to 2 g/kg IVIG and then challenged with an antiplatelet antibody (7E3, 8 mg/kg). IVIG effects on 7E3-induced thrombocytopenia and on 7E3 pharmacokinetics were determined. IVIG pretreatment led to significant changes in the degree...

To determine the long-term cost-benefit of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) treatment in Children with Kawasaki Disease (KD), a model was made to compare the total cost for management of these children with and without the use of IVIG. Long-term (10-21 years) follow-up of 594 KD patients treated in the pre-IVIG era reported by Kato, et al. was used to calculate cost using previous cost studies...

Administration of high dose intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) is widely used in the clinic to treat autoimmune and severe inflammatory diseases. However, its mechanisms of action remain poorly understood. We assessed the impact of IVIg on immune cell populations using an in vivo ovalbumin (Ova)-immunization mouse model. High dose IVIg significantly reduced the Ova-specific antibody response. In...

Experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) in a rat model of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Rats were pretreated with 0 to 2 g/kg IVIG and then challenged with an antiplatelet antibody (7E3, 8 mg/kg). IVIG effects on 7E3-induced thrombocytopenia and on 7E3 pharmacokinetics were determined. IVIG pretreatment led to significant changes in the degree...

according to CIDP Disease Activity Status (CDAS) [4, 6] . Twelve healthy volunteers were used as controls (‘Ctrl’ group). Skin punch biopsies were performed 10 cm above the external malleoli and snap frozen in liquid nitrogen. RNA extraction, gene expression profiling, and MetaCore ® data analysis were performed according to the methods described previously [4] with the following filters: fold ...

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) is widely used to treat autoimmune diseases. Several mutually nonexclusive mechanisms are proposed to explain the beneficial effects of IVIg in patients (1, 2). Lately, Ravetch and colleagues (3) demonstrate that anti-inflammatory activity of IVIg is mediated mainly by antibodies that contain terminal 2,6-sialic acid linkages at the Asn297-linked glycan of Fc r...

PURPOSE There are limited data on the cost of infections among patients with primary immunodeficiency disease (PIDD) in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to assess the economic impact, from the US commercial payer perspective, of infections in a cohort of patients with PIDD who were administered intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy. METHODS This study used administrative c...

OBJECTIVES We sought to study the gene expression of chemokines and their corresponding receptors in mononuclear blood cells (MNCs) from patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), both of which were cross-sectional and longitudinal studies during therapy with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg). BACKGROUND We have recently demonstrated that IVIg improves left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF...

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is a blood product prepared from the serum of between 1000 and 15 000 donors per batch. It is the treatment of choice for patients with antibody deficiencies. For this indication, IVIG is used at a ‘replacement dose’ of 200–400 mg/kg body weight, given approximately 3-weekly. In contrast, ‘high dose’ IVIG (hdIVIG), given most frequently at 2 g/kg/month, is used...

BACKGROUND Increasing evidence implicates innate immunity in the pathogenesis of congestive heart failure (CHF). In the present study, we examined the possible role of complement, an important part of innate immunity, in CHF. METHODS AND RESULTS Complement activation was analyzed in systemic and coronary circulation in 39 patients with CHF and 20 healthy control subjects. In a double-blind, p...