Surgery – Blood drawn and replaced or treated and returned to body
Patent
1997-06-10
1999-06-15
Clarke, Robert A.
Surgery
Blood drawn and replaced or treated and returned to body
210645, 210651, 422 44, A61M 3500
Patent
active
059116986
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
THIS INVENTION relates to plasma or serum delipidation in animals (which term shall indicate humans), to a treatment for cardiovascular disease and to removal of excess fat from the animals. In particular, it is directed to the removal of cholesterol, triglycerides and other lipids, and fat soluble toxins--for example, insecticides--from the blood plasma or serum of such animals.
BACKGROUND ART
Cardiovascular diseases are responsible for a significant number of deaths in most industrialised countries.
One such disease is atherosclerosis which is characterised by local fatty thickening in the inner aspects of large vessels supplying blood to the heart, brain and other vital organs. These lesions obstruct the lumen of the vessel and result in ischaemia of the tissue supplied by the vessel. Prolonged or sudden ischaemia may result in a clinical heart attack or stroke from which the patient may or may not recover.
The relationship between dietary lipid, serum cholesterol and atherosclerosis has long been recognised. In many epidemiological studies it has been shown that a single measurement of serum cholesterol has proved to be a significant predictor of the occurrence of coronary heart disease.
Thus diet is the basic element of all therapy for hyperlipidaemia (excessive amount of fat in plasma). However, the use of diet as a primary mode of therapy requires a major effort on the part of physicians, nutritionists, dietitians and other health professionals.
If dietary modification is unsuccessful, drug therapy is an alternative. Several drugs, used singly or in combination, are available. However, there is no direct evidence that any cholesterol-lowering drug can be safely administered over an extended period.
A combination of both drug and diet may be required to reduce the concentration of plasma lipids. Hypolipidaemic drugs are therefore used as a supplement to dietary control.
Many drugs are effective in reducing blood lipids, but none work in all types of hyperlipidaemia and they all have undesirable side effects. There is no conclusive evidence that hypolipidaemic drugs can cause regression of atherosclerosis. Thus, despite progress in achieving the lowering of plasma cholesterol to prevent heart disease by diet, drug therapies, surgical revascularization procedures and angioplasty, atherosclerosis remains the major cause of death in Western Countries.
In view of the above, new approaches have been sought to reduce the amount of lipid in the plasma of homozygotes and that of heterozygotes for whom oral drugs are not effective.
Plasmapheresis (plasma exchange) therapy has been developed and involves replacement of the patient's plasma with donor plasma or more usually a plasma protein fraction. This treatment can result in complications due to the possible introduction of foreign proteins and transmission of infectious diseases. Further, plasma exchange removes all the plasma proteins as well as very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), and high density lipoprotein (HDL).
It is known that HDL is inversely correlated with the severity of coronary arterial lesions as well as with the likelihood that these will progress. Therefore, removal of HDL is not advantageous.
Known aphaeresis techniques also exist which can remove LDL from plasma. These techniques include absorption of LDL in heparinagarose beads (affinity chromatography) or the use of immobilised LDL-antibodies. Other methods presently available for the removal of LDL involve cascade filtration absorption to immobilised dextran sulphate and LDL precipitation at low pH in the presence of heparin. Each method specifically removes LDL but not HDL.
LDL aphaeresis has, however, disadvantages. Significant amounts of other plasma proteins are removed during aphaeresis and to obtain a sustained reduction in LDL-cholesterol, LDL aphaeresis must be performed frequently (up to once weekly). Furthermore, LDL removal may be counter productive as. low blood LDL levels may result in increased cellular cholesterol synthe
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Aruba International Pty. Ltd.
Clarke Robert A.
O Ki Yong
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