décembre 22, 2020

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) is a rare autoimmune disorder that targets the body’s nerves. It is the most common form of chronic autoimmune neuropathy, and it is one of many disorders that can be treated using plasma products. Keep reading to learn more about CIDP and how blood plasma is used to manage this condition.

Symptoms of CIDP

Symptoms of CIDP progress slowly and occur over the course of at least two months. Chief symptoms of CIDP can include:

• Impaired motor function
• Loss of balance and your ability to walk
• Loss of sensation in your arms and legs
• Loss of reflexes
• Tingling sensations or in your arms and legs
• The gradual weakening of your arms and legs

Other symptoms may include burning, clumsiness, pain, fatigue, difficulty swallowing, and double vision. 

Causes of CIDP

Anyone can get CIDP, but people in their 50s and 60s are more likely to develop it. Men are also twice as likely as women to get this autoimmune disorder. Experts haven’t identified why people get CIDP, but what is known is that it is caused by inflammation of the nerves and nerve roots.

When someone has CIDP, their body’s immune system attacks the myelin sheaths, which are the protective covering around nerve cells. This can damage nerve fibres and impair the nerves’ ability to send signals.

Diagnosis of CIDP

CIDP is a rare disorder, which means it can be difficult to diagnose. There’s no test available that diagnosis CIDP, so doctors typically ask patients questions about their symptoms and conduct a thorough physical examination. Doctors may also do blood and urine tests, a nerve conduction study or a lumbar puncture, which is a procedure that involves extracting a small sample of your cerebrospinal fluid in an effort to detect elevated levels of specific proteins that are associated with CIDP.

Healthcare providers sometimes confuse symptoms of CIDP with those of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), which is another illness that causes nerve problems. However, unlike GBS, CIDP isn’t brought on by an illness. CIDP also tends to be a longer-term problem.

Treatment of CIDP

Early treatment is extremely important for patients who have CIDP, and it is critical to preventing irreversible damage. The sooner a patient begins treatment, the better their chances are of a full recovery. Common treatments for CIDP include steroids, plasma exchange (plasmapheresis), and intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg).

Plasma exchange is used to remove immune system proteins that may be contributing to nerve damage from the blood. This treatment method has proven to be effective in up to 80% of patients.

Intravenous immunoglobulin, which is a plasma product composed of antibodies from donors, is used to mitigate the effects of an individual’s immune response. It is most effective in patients who have had symptoms of CIDP for less than a year and/or present acute symptoms of the disorder. IVIg is often used in combination with steroid treatments.

CIDP is a disorder that exemplifies just how life-changing plasma products can be. With early intervention, patients can lead relatively normal lives and avoid permanent physical impairments. If you’d like to help create therapies for patients in need, book an appointment at Canadian Plasma Resources today! Every donation helps.

septembre 20, 2019

The human body is an incredible organism that is capable of performing fascinating feats. Plasma, the clear, straw-coloured liquid portion of blood, is one part of our bodies that is particularly intriguing when it comes to the body’s ability to heal itself.  In fact, the healing properties of human plasma have been found to be so effective that this blood component is now frequently used to accelerate the healing process from injuries including animal bites and burns.

Here’s everything you need to know about how plasma is used to treat injuries from everyday accidents.

What’s In Blood Plasma?

Before getting into the logistics of how plasma treatments work, it’s important to first establish what exactly is contained in this liquid. Plasma, which makes up a total of 55% of your total blood volume, is mainly composed of water (a total of 90% by volume). Human plasma also contains glucose, mineral ions, hormones, carbon dioxide, clotting factors, and dissolved proteins.

The contents of plasma make it a great transporting medium for cells and a variety of other substances that are essential to bodily function, but it gets its healing properties mainly from the proteins contained within it. Plasma proteins help heal wounds via a metabolic process that supports tissue repair.

How Blood Plasma Is Used To Treat Injuries

Plasma has been used in the healthcare industry for some time now, but doctors and scientists continue to discover and improve upon the healing powers of this state of matter. The most common treatment method used to heal tissue with plasma is platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy.

During platelet-rich plasma therapy, concentrations of a patient’s own platelets that have been collected via a centrifuge are injected into injured areas. Activated platelets play a vital role in the body’s natural healing process and they have proven to be particularly effective at treating animal bites, burns, and pediatric HIV. Once concentrated platelets have been injected into injured tissue, growth factors that stimulate and increase the quantity of reparative cells produced by your body are released. 

Other Uses of Blood Plasma

The healing powers of plasma aren’t just used to treat everyday injuries; this vital liquid is also used to treat a host of autoimmune conditions and immune deficiencies. In order to treat immunodeficiency diseases, plasma needs to be manufactured into lifesaving medicines. However, unlike the plasma treatments used to cure everyday injuries, the medicines used to treat those with immune deficiencies rely on a donor supply.

At Canadian Plasma Resources, we wholeheartedly believe in the healing properties of plasma, which is why we’ve dedicated ourselves to creating lifesaving therapies for those in need. With that said, we can’t create these medicines on our own and donor plasma is an absolutely essential component of this process. Book your next appointment today and make a difference in someone’s life.

juillet 19, 2019

Plasma is a yellow liquid component of blood that contains life-saving proteins. The proteins in plasma can help to treat a number of rare autoimmune diseases. One such disease is Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (Alpha-1).

In today’s blog, we’ll be unpacking everything you need to know about alpha-1 and the important role plasma plays in treating this disease.

Causes of Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency

Alpha-1, also known as AAT, is a genetic disorder that is passed down from parents to children when both parents carry abnormal genes. An alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency occurs when mutations in the SERPINA1 gene, a gene that provides instructions for making alpha-1 antitrypsin proteins, occur.

The alpha-1 protein is essential to good health as it protects the body from neutrophil elastase, a powerful enzyme that gets released from white blood cells to fight infection. When neutrophil elastase is not controlled by alpha-1, it can attack normal tissues.  

Symptoms of Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency

Symptoms and signs of alpha-1 can vary greatly among individuals. Some people living with the condition get their first symptoms in childhood, while others don’t experience any symptoms until they are 60 years old. The organs that are most commonly affected by Alpha-1 are the liver, lungs, and skin.

Here are the symptoms those with an alpha-1 deficiency may experience according to affected organs:

• Liver: Fatigue, swelling of belly or legs, loss of appetite and weight loss, jaundice (yellow discoloration of the skin or eyes), blood in stool, and/or vomiting blood.
• Lungs: Numerous lung infections, excessive coughing and phlegm production, wheezing, shortness of breath, and/or low energy.
• Skin: Painful lumps under skin that are warm to the touch.

An alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency may eventually cause liver disease or lung disease.

Diagnosis of Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency

Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is typically diagnosed by a doctor that will check for signs your lungs aren’t working correctly and ask about other common symptoms of the disease. A blood test that checks for mutations in the SERPINA1 gene and levels of protein in the bloodstream is needed to confirm Alpha-1 diagnoses.

Treatment of Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency

There is no cure for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, but the disease can be managed via augmentation therapy (or “replacement therapy”). In augmentation therapy, plasma from healthy donors is used to increase levels of alpha-1 in the blood and lungs of those who have the condition. Plasma protein is administered through intravenous infusion on a weekly basis.

The goal of augmentation therapy is to slow or stop damage to affected organs. The therapy cannot reverse damage already incurred, but it can improve quality of life. Alphas have to undergo these treatments throughout the rest of their life.

The importance of having enough plasma to treat those living with conditions like alpha-1 cannot be emphasized enough. More than 900 plasma donations are required each year to treat one Alpha-1 patient. At Canadian Plasma Resources, we do everything in our power to provide the plasma needed for these lifesaving treatments. Not only do our donors leave our centres with the satisfaction of knowing they’ve saved a life, they are also compensated for their time.

Book your next appointment today!