PREVENTING INFECTIONS WITH INTRAVENOUS IM MUNOGLOBULINS IN BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTATION

Patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation are at risk for life-t hreatening infections for various reasons. After a period of neutropen ia the allogenic transplant necessitates continuous immunosuppression for the prevention of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). The observatio n of declining immunoglobulin levels early led to attempts of passive transfer of humoral immunity mainly to prevent cytomegalovirus (CMV) i nfection and reactivation. While in autologous transplantation no subs tantial benefit could be established, it seems likely that high risk g roups of allogenic transplanted patients will benefit in terms of a re duced incidence and severity of CMV disease and GvHD.