Studies on Lymphocytes during Extracorporeal Irradiation of the Blood in Patients with Active Cirrhosis

The lymphocyte concentration in the blood was followed closely in four patients with active cirrhosis who were treated with extracorporeal irradiation of the blood (ECI). A reduction to 25% of the original values was obtained, and three months after treatment the lymphocyte concentration remained below 50% of pretreatment values. This is not significantly different from the results previously obtained in uraemic patients although a much more concentrated treatment schedule was employed in the present patients. This shows that the large majority of the recirculating lymphocytes pass through the blood within 3–4 days. In vitro stimulation of blood lymphocytes with phytohaemagglutinin showed that in the three patients studied the response per cell did not change significantly during ECI. However, the initially positive transformation response to tuberculin in vitro changed into a negative one during ECI in all cases, indicating that a selective depletion of the tuberculin-sensitive cells of the blood took place during ECI.