Biocompatibility in Membrane Plasmapheresis: The Necessity of Global Understanding

Guest Editor's Introduction: Regarding immunomodulation to a patient, it is sometimes forgotten that the apheresis procedure itself induces immunomodulation effects to a certain extent. Such an effect is called procedurally associated immunomodulation and defined by Nose as the immunological impacts induced by the device and the method other than the intended therapeutic immunomodulation to a patient. This paper is the first report describing the procedurally associated immunomodulation. This paper was originally printed in Therapeutic Plasmapheresis, vol. 6, page 27–43 (1987), and reprinted here with permission.