Health status and infections in patients with symptomatic primary and secondary immunoglobulin G (IgG) deficiencies receiving intravenous IgG replacement
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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Health status and infections in patients with symptomatic primary and secondary immunoglobulin G (IgG) deficiencies receiving intravenous IgG replacement
Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>The effects of intravenous immunoglobulin G replacement on perceived health and infection susceptibility of patients suffering from immunoglobulin G (IgG) deficiencies should be evaluated in a prospective analysis.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>Patients with symptomatic primary or secondary IgG deficiencies were interviewed prior to the first IgG infusion (t<jats:sub>0</jats:sub>) and over the course of their treatment (t<jats:sub>1</jats:sub>- t<jats:sub>6</jats:sub>). The respondents rated their current health using a 100 point scale (EQ-5D-5L), ranging from 0 (‘worst imaginable health’) to 100 (‘best imaginable health’). The patients also provided information on the frequency of infections and of infections requiring antibiotics in the past 8 weeks. A healthy control group (CG) without oncologic diseases answered the questions once.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>One hundred six patients with a median age of 65 years (21–85 years) were investigated. The median serum IgG concentration changed from 500 mg/dl (t<jats:sub>0</jats:sub>) to 772 mg/dl (t<jats:sub>6</jats:sub>). The mean number of infections and of infections requiring antibiotics decreased during IgG replacement significantly. Current health according to EQ-5D-5L improved from 57 (t<jats:sub>0</jats:sub>) to 68 (t<jats:sub>6</jats:sub>), compared to 73 in the CG.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>During the course of IgG replacement patients reported fewer and less severe infections. Their health assessment improved but still was inferior to the healthy CG.</jats:p></jats:sec>