Title: Cryoglobulinemia and double-filtration plasmapheresis : Personal experience and literature review

Biography:

Augustin TWITE BANZA was born on 04/11/1987 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Doctor of medicine from the University of Lubumbashi (DR Congo) in 2013 then graduated from specialized studies in Nephrology from the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar in October 2022.

University diploma in Nephro-oncology from Paris Creteil University in October 2023.Member of French-speaking Society of Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation (SFNDT) and Senegalese Society of Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation (SOSENDT).Currently, a nephrologist at the Fawzeni hospital in Touba, Senegal.

 

Abstract

Background : Cryoglobulinemia is defined as the presence of an abnormal immunoglobulin that may be responsible for vasculitis of small-caliber vessels.

Apheresis can be used in order to temporarily eliminate circulating cryoglobulins. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of apheresis (double-filtration plasmapheresis-DFPP) in symptomatic and/or severe cryoglobulinemias.

Methods : Four male patients presenting cryoglobulinemic vasculitis and who received DFPP sessions were included.

Results : Their mean age was 57 ± 15 years. One patient had hepatitis-C virus (HCV)-related cryoglobulinemia and the other three patients were carriers of an IgM Kappa monoclonal gammopathy. Mean duration of follow-up was 15 ± 2 months. DFPP allowed healing of ulcerative skin lesions in the first patient and remission of nephrotic syndrome in the other patients after a median of 6(5–10) sessions.

Conclusion : DFPP can be used safely in cryoglobulinemic-vasculitis and can be considered early to achieve a faster and sustained clinical-biological response.

KEYWORDS : chronic hepatitis C, cryoglobulinemia, double-filtration plasmapheresis, membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis, rituximab, Waldenström disease