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H.E.L.P. Therapy

H.E.L.P. stands for Heparin-mediated Extracorporeal LDL-Precipitation It is a worldwide used extracorporeal system to remove Low Density Lipoproteins from the blood circulation of patients. The principal idea of the system was generated by D. Seidel and H. Wieland almost 30 years ago and became the basis for the H.E.L.P.-system provided by B. Braun Melsungen. It is the understanding of the scientific community that a synergism of different mechanisms including dyslipoproteinemia, primarily hypercholesterolemia with elevation of LDL-cholesterol, oxidative stress, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, genetic factors, life style and others factors play dominant roles in the development of atherosclerotic disease and thus are primarily responsible for the high incidence of coronary heart disease and stroke in our societies. More recent knowledge provides strong evidence that chronic inflammation is also of key importance in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease and for clinical events. Along these lines of evidence, elevated LDL-cholesterol, Lp(a), inflammatory markers, Fibrinogen, CRP, IL-6 and some other cytokines have demonstrated power as predictors to identify people with high risk for future cardiovascular events and should be targets for a specific therapy.

With the introduction and use of the statins - drugs to lower LDL-C in the blood - it may be estimated that approximately 95% of all patients, who need therapy will achieve the therapeutic target concentrations of <100/70 LDL-C mg/dl (NCEP ATP III guidelines). For the remaining small group of patients LDL-Apheresis has proven to be the most promising and safe method as an adjuvant therapy. Most of the available systems are effective in the removal LDL and Lp(a) by a single procedure but it is only the H.E.L.P.-system which allows a simultaneous removal of CRP, Fibrinogen, proinflammatory- and procoagulatory factors.



For more details see:

• LDL-apheresis in the treatment of atherosclerotic disease

also see comprehensive literature for the H.E.L.P.-treatment.