A new study suggests that some patients with multiple sclerosis and related diseases may benefit from exchanging their blood plasma. Several researchers, however, said too few patients were involved for the results to be conclusive. Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that afflicts more than 300,000 Americans, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society estimates.
Symptoms range from numbness in the limbs to paralysis and loss of speech and vision.
Inflammation and breakdown in the protective, fatty insulation around the nerve endings and spinal cord cause attacks in some patients. Most patients are treated successfully with steroids, but up to 10 percent don't respond. They are the ones who might be helped by the new treatment. Dr. Ben Thrower, of the MS Center located at Holy Family Hospital in Spokane, called the study very promising and said the treatment will be made available locally to those patients. The center will help make the arrangements with Sacred Heart Medical Center, which has the area's only plasma exchange machine.