INTRAVENOUS IMMUNE GLOBULIN IN AUTOIMMUNE-DISEASES

Immune globulin are extracted from plasma pooled from 1000 or more don ors. Each lot should contain at least 90 % of intact IgG. Intravenous immune globulin are recommanded uenquivocally for some diseases: acute autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura of childhood, autoimmune erythrob lastopenia, haemophilia with anti-VIII antibodies, Kawasaki's syndrome , and perhaps, Guillain-Barre syndrome. Nevertheless, this therapy has been reported to be beneficial for more than 35 diseases thought to b e produced by immunopathology. Large amounts of immune globulin, such as 400 to 2000 mg/kg are proposed over a period of two to five days. T he safety of this treatment, which may be introduced without any speci al structure, is a very interesting quality of the intravenous immune globulin therapy. However, comparative efficacy against reference ther apy, surveillance for long-term positive and adverse effects and cost- effectiveness should be carried out.