Apheresis Department

The Apheresis Department provides blood collecting and therapeutic services using the hemapheresis technique. 

At the same time, the department focuses on PBPC separation (of hemopoietic cells from peripheral blood) and therapeutic services primarily to IHBT patients, but also to those of different clinics of the General University Hospital in Prague and, if necessary, of other hospitals in the Czech Republic. It cooperates with the Czech Stem Cells Registry in the preparation of PBPCs from unrelated donors. Since the year 2000 it has been conducting long-term monitoring of the state of health of PBPC donors after mobilization and separation. The department has the status of a Human Tissue and Cell Establishment.

The Apheresis Department cooperates with the international therapeutic apheresis registry of the WAA (World Apheresis Association) for the registration and evaluation of undesirable effects of complications in therapeutic hemapheresis. 

Apart from medicine, the staff members are actively involved in research projects in the following fields:

• checking the efficiency of separation techniques for the preparation of MNC using new types of separation equipment,
• introduction of rheopheresis technique and checking its effect on patients with AMD (Age-related Macular Degeneration of the eye) – backed by the Operational Program Prague - Competitiveness,
• safety of mobilization and separation in PBPC donors,
• frequency and seriousness of undesirable reactions in relation to donor and therapeutic hemapheresis.