IVIG (intravenous immunoglobulin therapy)

*NOTE: I had a question in regards to IVIG and asked Dr. Oppenheimer about it, the following is his answer to my question.

IVIG (intravenous immunoglobulin therapy) is an expensive therapy which is often in short supply; there are a number of conditions for which it is indicated based on well-designed published research. At this time I do not believe that there is any evidence that IVIG is useful for people with ALS. Sometimes a neurologist thinks that there may actually be another disease present (that looks very much like ALS) that might respond to a different treatment. For example multifocal motor neuropathy does often respond to IVIG.

A 1996 small study by Meucci N, Nobile-Orazio E, Scarlato G. (Institute of Clinical Neurology, University of Milan, Italy) found no evidence that it slowed progression of ALS
Intravenous immunoglobulin therapy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
J Neurol. 1996 Feb;243(2):117-20. This study does not provide any evidence that this expensive form of therapy consistently slows the course of ALS.

Another study in 1994 by Dalakas MC, Stein DP, Otero C, Sekul E, Cupler EJ, McCrosky S. (Neuromuscular Diseases Section, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md.). Effect of high-dose intravenous immunoglobulin on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multifocal motor neuropathy.
Arch Neurol. 1994 Sep;51(9):861-4. This concluded: "High-dose intravenous immunoglobulin, a prohibitively expensive drug, has no apparent therapeutic role in improving the symptoms or arresting the pace of progression in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In contrast, multifocal motor neuropathy is an immunopathologically different disease that responds to intravenous immunoglobulin therapy."

I hope that this is helpful.  With all best wishes,

Edward Anthony Oppenheimer, MD, FCCP
Pulmonary Medicine
Los Angeles, California

"When two egotists meet, it is a case of an I for an I." Lahore Tribune