title: Extracorporeal treatment for refractory hyperlipidemia.
abstract: Radical, non-pharmacological, methods of treatment should never be used until it has first been shown that conventional therapy either fails to control hyperlipidemia or cannot be tolerated by the patient. In general, the use of extracorporeal techniques will be restricted to patients with severe familial hypercholesterolemia, although occasionally they may be resorted to in other categories of hyperlipidemia. Seven different procedures are available today for routine clinical practice: unselective plasma exchange, semi-selective double filtration and its modifications as well as the highly selective procedures of immunoadsorption, chemo-adsorption onto dextran sulfate, heparin induced LDL precipitation lipoprotein(a) column, and LDL hemoperfusion (direct adsorption of lipids--DALI). Large-scale regression studies were performed with five highly selective treatment modalities. Control coronary angiograms obtained after about two years of treatment showed that atherosclerotic plaques on coronary arteries had not enlarged or had even been reduced in 80% to 90% of patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology and Dialysis, Sestre Milosrdnice University Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kes
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Reiner
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D001781:Blood Component Removal; D005112:Extracorporeal Circulation; D006440:Hemofiltration; D006801:Humans; D006949:Hyperlipidemias / Q000628:therapy*; D007163:Immunosorbent Techniques; D010951:Plasma Exchange