Neocytoapheresis in the treatment of polycythemia vera.
In absence of thrombocytosis, periodic bloodlettings represent the elective therapy of polycythemia vera. In the present study we tested if neocytoapheresis, a method able to remove large quantities of younger, and then bigger red cells could represent an alternative therapeutic choice in these patients. We found that the employment of neocytoapheresis produced a remarkable delay in the time of procedures with a mean interval of 100 +/- 55 days. The mean value of hematocrit before neocytopheresis is resulted statistically different in comparison with the hematocrit after the procedure (p = 0.0001). The reticulocyte count is resulted higher in apheresis product in comparison with the blood control measured before procedure (p = 0.0001). In the same way, the mean corpuscular volume in the collection bags was higher than the volume measured before neocytoapheresis (p = 0.0095). We did not find any variation about the mean values of white blood cells and platelets before and after neocytoapheresis in the patients examined. These preliminary data seem to underline a better withdrawal of big size cells by this technique suggesting the efficacy of neocytoapheresis in the treatment of polycythemia vera.
Centurioni
R
R
Istituto di Clinica Medica Generale, Ematologia ed Immunologia Clinica, Università, Ancona.
Leoni
P
P
Candela
M
M
Cristina Refe
M
M
Stella Strusi
A
A
Fabietti
L
L
Danieli
G
G
D001772:Blood Cell Count; D016238:Cytapheresis; D004912:Erythrocytes; D006400:Hematocrit; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D011087:Polycythemia Vera / Q000628:therapy*; D012156:Reticulocytes; D016896:Treatment Outcome