Review: selective filtration--a phlebotomy strategy for sickle cell therapy.
The molecular defect in sickle cell disease is an error in the coding for hemoglobin synthesis. All of a patient's erythrocyte precursors share the genetic defect, but the patient's circulating erythrocytes are heterogenous in their degree of deformability. Periodic removal, by selective filtration, of the least deformable of the circulating erythrocytes might prove of clinical benefit.
Nusbaum
N J
NJ
Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans VA Medical Center, LA 70146, USA.
D000755:Anemia, Sickle Cell / Q000097:blood / Q000628:therapy*; D001781:Blood Component Removal / Q000379:methods; D004907:Erythrocyte Deformability; D004913:Erythrocytes, Abnormal; D005374:Filtration; D006801:Humans; D018962:Phlebotomy