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Old Sun Apr 1, 2007, 09:45 PM
Andrea Pecor Andrea Pecor is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Yorktown Heights, NY, USA
Posts: 20
ATG

James,

I've had a fair amount of experience with ATG but have never heard of it being given as an injection. Generally, it's an intraveneous drip given for several hours a day over a period of several days (the standard is something like 4-6 hours per day for 4 days) Experiences vary tremendously from patient to patient. Some of the side effects can be headache, chills & fever, itchy rash. Most of these can be controlled with other medications. ATG protocol is usually followed by some ongoing dosage of Cyclosporine and/or Prednisone. Some patients have no trouble during the infusions but experience what is called "serum sickness" which occurs a week or so after the ATG is finished. Serum sickness is an allergic reaction to the ATG. It's similar to the side effects I mentioned before and can usually be taken care of with Prednisone. Usually, the doctors will do some skin tests before they start the ATG to determine the potential for an allergic reaction. Your blood counts could go down during and after the ATG treatment. Most people who respond do so within 6-9 months. Some patients require a second round of the ATG before they see a response.

I wish you all the best through the ATG treatment and hope you have an easy time and a positive response. Let us know how you are doing and if we can answer any more questions for you.

best,
Andrea

Quote:
Originally Posted by James D View Post
I was first told I had Aplastic Anemia Sept.12th 2006. My platelets are 19000 my rbc is 2.0. I start ATG injections Monday April 2nd. What should I expect?
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Andrea, diagnosed SAA 1980; treated with ATG 5X, diagnosed Hepatitis C (from transfusion) 1980, diagnosed PNH (small clone) approx 1998
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