In order to establish the therapeutic filtration lymphocytapheresis, the filtration properties of two leukocyte removal filters (Sepacell R-500 and Imugard IG-500) were studied with lymphocyte-rich plasma collected from the patients with autoimmune diseases. The recoveries of red cells, platelets and leukocytes after Sepacell filtration at room temperature were 92.3%, 25.7%, and 16.4%, respectively. Those recoveries after Imugard filtration were 79.7%, 44.0%, and 12.9%, respectively. Most of leukocytes in the filtrate were lymphocytes. After Sepacell filtration, the percentages of OKT4 (+)- and OKT8 (+)-lymphocytes in the patients' blood were slightly increased and significantly decreased, respectively. The ratio of OKT4/OKT8 was appreciably increased. On the other hand, after Imugard filtration the percentages of OKT3 (+)- and OKT4 (+)-lymphocytes were slightly increased but those of OKT8 (+)- and OKB7 (+)-lymphocytes were significantly decreased. The ratios of OKT3/OKB7 and OKT4/OKT8 were appreciably increased. Thus, it is necessary to understand sufficiently the removal properties of lymphocyte subsets through leukocyte removal filters at the therapeutic filtration lymphocytapheresis.

View full abstract

Recently antiglobulin tests (AGT) have been prevalent in screening and identification of antibodies in sera or in compatibility tests. However, false negative phenomenons in AGT, which are cumbersome and wasteful of time and money, occurred in 4.2% (388/9, 217 samples tested) with automatic cell washers in use, but not with manual 4 times washing procedures. When the test tubes were overflowed with massive additional saline before spin and decant cycles using automatic cell washers, the incidences of false negative phenomenons were remarkably reduced to only 0.02% (5/20, 153 samples tested) without any loss of red cells.
When saline was discarded along the outlets opposite to the inlets of saline on the inner-surfaces of the test tubes, false negative phenomenons occurred easily to be 9.4% (18/192 samples tested). On the contrary, when the outlets of saline were just the same routes as thier inlets, no false negative phenomenons were observed at all.
Overflowing additions of saline before thier waste are easy to perform and result in washing the whole inner-surfaces of the test tubes much more cleanly, so that false negative phenomenons are decreased remarkably.

View full abstract

A method has been developed for determining platelet β-thromboglobulin (β-TG) in human plasma for the purpose of investigating patients with a higher risk of postoperative thromboembolism under open-heart surgery. Using the double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique employing microtiter plate as a solid phase β-TG concentrations can be measured in the range of 1 to 50ng/ml. This method is just as sensitive and as specific as the currently available commercial radioimmunoassay kits. In addition multiple samples can be assayed simultaneously and the method is cost-effective.
The serial changes of plasma β-TG concentrations in 11 adult patients who underwent valve replacement were measured using this method beginning from the day prior to the operation and up to the 21st postoperative day. Eleven patients were divided into two groups according to the postoperative antithrombogenic therapy. Six patients were given only warfarin (Group I), whereas 5 patients were administered warfarin and 2g of aspirin daily from the third postoperative day (Group II). The β-TG ratio which is the ratio of the plasma β-TG concentration to the platelet count in peripheral blood was used as the marker of in vivo platelet activation. In group I the β-TG ratio obtained from samples 3 to 21 days after surgery was significantly higher than the corresponding ratio obtained on the preoperative day. On the contrary, in group II, β-TG ratio tended to decrease quickly to the preoperative level. The β-TG ratio of group II was significantly lower than that of group I on the 7th and 14th postoperative day. As shown, β-TG ratio appears to be useful as the marker of the effect of the antiplatelet drugs in the early postoperative period after open-heart surgery.

View full abstract