Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, has successfully performed LDL Apheresis for the first time on a 24-year-old patient suffering from Homozygous Familial Hypercholesterolemia (HoFH), a rare inherited disorder.
Understanding HoFH
HoFH is a severe genetic condition characterized by extremely high levels of cholesterol in the blood from birth, often leading to premature cardiovascular disease at a young age. Patients with this disorder face a significantly increased risk of heart attacks and other serious cardiac complications.
Patient Background
The treatment was carried out under the leadership of cardiologists Dr. Harikrishnan S and Dr. Manish Yadav. The patient, who developed heart disease at a young age due to cholesterol deposits in her arteries, had previously undergone bypass surgery. Despite receiving the maximum recommended combination of cholesterol-lowering medications, her low-density lipoprotein (LDL), commonly known as 'bad cholesterol,' remained dangerously high at around 500 mg/dL. Conventional drug therapy failed to produce the desired results.
LDL Apheresis Procedure
LDL Apheresis is a specialized blood purification procedure designed to remove excess LDL cholesterol from the bloodstream. During the treatment, the patient's blood is passed through a machine that separates plasma from blood cells. The LDL cholesterol is then selectively removed from the plasma through a specialized filtration process. The treated plasma is subsequently recombined with the blood cells and returned to the patient.
The procedure takes approximately two to three hours and can be performed on an outpatient basis without requiring hospital admission. This marks a significant milestone in the management of HoFH, offering new hope for patients with this rare and life-threatening condition.
