Efficacy of intravenous immunoglobulin in the treatment of thrombotic thrombocytopaenic purpura. A study of 44 cases. Dervenoulas J, Tsirigotis P, Bollas G, Koumarianou AA, Pappa V, Mantzios G, Xiros N, Economopoulos T, Papageorgiou E, Pappa M, Raptis SA. Acta Haematologica 2001;105(4):204-208.

Since the institution of plasma exchange therapy, no further treatments have been demonstrated to improve the survival and relapse rate of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). In this retrospective study, the authors evaluated the efficacy of normal human immunoglobulin treatment in 44 patients with TTP in Athens, Greece. Patients were divided into two groups that either did not receive (group A: 15 patients) or received (group B: 29 patients) 400 mg/kg of human normal immunoglobulin intravenously for five days. All patients received treatment with corticosteroids, anti-platelet agents and plasma exchange. The results clearly showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in either remission rate or time to relapse following remission. In conclusion, this study did not prove any beneficial effect of immunoglobulin in the treatment of TTP patients.