View Single Post
  #3  
Old Sat Sep 17, 2011, 02:33 PM
Ruth Cuadra Ruth Cuadra is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Los Angeles, California
Posts: 616
Hi, pivnod.

You may be right that your daughter did not get the full benefit of her ATG treatment because she was not receiving a therapeutic dose of CSA soon enough. As far as I know CSA is typically started immediately after ATG is given. In fact, I took CSA with prednisone after my ATG, without waiting for the prednisone to be tapered. My CSA level was tested twice a week at first, then once a week for several months and the dosage was adjusted as needed. It's important that they test for the "trough" (lowest) level by doing the blood test in the morning before your daughter's first CSA dose of the day.

It can take up to six months to see a response to ATG, but since your daughter is already about ten months out, it would be reasonable to talk to the doctor about repeating the treatment. Recent studies have should that horse ATG is much more effective than rabbit ATG so doing a second round like the first one may be the way to go.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Ruth
__________________
Diagnosed AA 10/96, MDS/RA 6/98, MUD/BMT 10/6/98
Reply With Quote