Clinical efficacy of autologous plasma therapy for atopic dermatitis.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The clinical efficacy of autologous blood therapy (ABT) in patients

with atopic dermatitis (AD) was demonstrated by a randomized double-blind

placebo-controlled study. To characterize the blood component mediating the

therapeutic efficacy of ABT for AD, we evaluated the clinical efficacy of

autologous plasma therapy (APT) and autologous high-molecular-weight plasma

protein fraction therapy (AHPT) in patients with AD in this study. METHODS: A

total of 22 patients with recalcitrant AD were treated with 8 weekly

intramuscular injections of either autologous plasma (n = 11) or autologous

high-molecular-weight plasma protein fraction (n = 11) for 7 weeks. RESULTS: The

clinical severity score of AD (SCORAD value) of 11 patients who completed AHPT

significantly decreased from 79.7 +/- 17.0 (mean +/- SD) at baseline to 65.8 +/-

16.4 at 6 weeks and 60.1 +/- 16.0 at 7 weeks (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p <

0.05). There were no significant differences among the SCORAD values measured at

baseline (74.2 +/- 19.6), at 6 weeks (66.3 +/- 23.6) and at 7 weeks (67.5 +/-

20.8) in 10 patients who completed APT (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: This result

suggests that the blood component mediating the therapeutic efficacy of ABT in

patients with AD might be present in the high-molecular-weight plasma protein

fraction.