Plasma exchange in myasthenia gravis and multiple sclerosis.

During the last twenty-year period therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) was used in the treatment of 68 patients with myasthenia gravis and 61 patients with multiple sclerosis. The therapeutic effects were evaluated on the basis of neurologic deficit changes, electrophysiological findings, necessary laboratory analyses and patient's general conditions. It was shown that the therapeutic effects mosty depended on the nature and stage of the basic disease, adequate selection of the patients and timely applied therapeutic procedure. Significant positive effects of the TPE treatment applied with the anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive therapy were observed in patients with myasthenia gravis and multiple sclerosis upon clinical findings and some paraclinical tests.