Extracorporeal fibrinogen adsorption – efficacy, selectivity and safety in healthy subjects and patients with foot ulcers

The elimination of fibrinogen from plasma improves plasma viscosity and whole blood viscosity. For extracorporeal adsorption of fibrinogen the pentapeptide gly-pro-arg-pro-lys was coupled to sepharose CL-4B. Columns containing 100 ml of coupled sepharose CL-4B were used to eliminate fibrinogen from the plasma of 8 healthy male subjects (mean age 27.4±4.3 years, height 180.9±8.3 cm, weight 85.1±13.6 kg). Four treatments were performed in each proband (days 1, 2, 4 and 7). Plasma fibrinogen concentration was lowered from 221.1±39.0 to 123.5±21.7 mg/dl (2275±477 ml plasma treated) by the first treatment, from 172.8±42.3 to 105.6±16.5 mg/dl (1609±761 ml) by the second, from 140.5±13.8 to 98.8±8.6 mg/dl (1224±118 ml) by the third and from 160.2±23.6 to 106.4±9.7 mg/dl (1513±521) by the fourth. Plasma viscosity was improved from 1.40±0.18 mPa s before the first treatment to 1.23±0.06 mPa s after fourth treatment, whole blood viscosity from 4.49±0.36 mPa s to 3.83±0.27 mPa s ( P