Abstract
Plasma exchange (PEx) was performed in 20 patients with collagen disease. In SLE, various symptoms were improved immediately following PEx except for nephrotic syndrome secondary to lupus nephritis. As circulating immune complexes (IC) were frequently detected in patients with clinical effect, it seems to be that the positive IC is one of the indication for PEx. In PSS and MCTD, severe Raynaud's symptom was improved but there was no change on the other clinical features. As to PEx for Raynaud's symptom, plasma viscosity may be useful parameter of this procedure. When the results of PEx with double filtration plasmapheresis and centrifugaton method were compared, the advantage of the former was able to reduce the amount of albumin for substitution significantly.
