Dietetic treatment of essential mixed cryoglobulinemia.

On the basis of a functional model of the system removing immune complexes from blood (SRIC), we may consider essential mixed cryoglobulinemia (EMC) as a condition of SRIC insufficiency due to an excessive input of immune complexes. Thus, we tried to lower the global input to SRIC in 10 symptomatic EMC patients by giving them a hypoantigenic diet for 2-3 weeks, with a gradual return on free diet in the subsequent 12 weeks. After 10-60 days from the beginning of diet, all patients experienced significant reductions of symptoms' intensity (p = 0.005), of cryoprecipitate protein content (p = 0.025) and of circulating immune complex-like material (p = 0.035). A reduction of the prednisone dosage (p less than 0.005) in the 7 patients on continuous treatment was made possible. After the return on free diet, 6 patients had a relapse. Although preliminary, our results show that a hypoantigenic diet is able to lower circulating cryoglobulin levels and to clinically improve the EMC, probably by making the SRIC more functionally efficient.