title: Plasma exchange therapy in steroid-unresponsive relapses in patients with multiple sclerosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Plasma exchange (PE) is well established for conditions such as rapid progressive vasculitis associated with autoantibodies against neutrophil cytoplasmic antigens (ANCA), anti-glomerular basement membrane (GBM) antibody disease, or thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). Also, several neurological disorders, such as acute worsening in myasthenia gravis, Guillan-Barré syndrome (GBS) and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), can successfully be treated with PE. Only small case series have previously shown that PE is also effective in relapses in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).
  
  
  METHODS
  We report our experiences of PE therapy in a series of 20 patients with 21 steroid unresponsive MS relapses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A marked-to-moderate clinical response with clear gain of function in 76% of patients with uni- or bilateral optic neuritis and in 87.5% of patients with relapses other than optic neuritis was observed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PE is an effective and well tolerated therapeutic option for steroid-unresponsive MS relapses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany. trebst.corinna@mh-hannover.de
authors.forename: Corinna
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Trebst
authors.forename: Ansgar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Reising
authors.forename: Jan T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Kielstein
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hafer
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stangel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009103:Multiple Sclerosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*; D010951:Plasma Exchange; D012008:Recurrence; D013256:Steroids / Q000627:therapeutic use; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D013256:Steroids