Leukopheresis therapy for severe infantile pertussis with myocardial and pulmonary failure

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
To describe an infant with severe pertussis successfully treated with leukopheresis. Case report. Pediatric intensive care unit of a children's hospital. Five-wk-old female with pertussis complicated by cardiorespiratory failure. Single leukopheresis treatment. Normalization of the white blood cell count and marked cardiorespiratory improvement after treatment; patient survived. Given the temporal association between treatment and improvement, we hypothesize that the markedly elevated white blood cell count has a major role in the cardiopulmonary compromise.