| abstract |
Immunoapheresis treatment for cardiomyopathy comprises passing the patient's plasma over a column having coupled thereto a specific ligand for human immunoglobulin, thereby removing a significant portion of the immunoglobulin from the patient's plasma, and then reinfusing the plasma to the patient. The invention is the use of a specific ligand for human immunoglobulin in the manufacture of a column having the ligand coupled thereto, the column being useful for immunoapheresis treatment of a patient with cardiomyopathy. The specific ligand binds, and thereby removes, human autoantibodies which are harmful to cardiac tissue such as antibodies against β 1 -adrenergic receptors, ADP-ATP carriers, α and β myosin heavy chains, and adenine nucleotide translocators. Immunoapheresis treatment using the column results in improvement of hemodynamic parameters such as mean arterial pressure, mean pulmonary pressure, pumonary capillary wedge pressure, right atrial pressure, cardiac output, cariac index, stroke volume index, and systemic vascular resistance. |