Recent activities of INGID board members
Members of INGID have been particularly active in recent months, promoting the work of Immunology nurses, the role of the nurse in immunoglobulin therapy and care of patients with a PID.
An Reniers was in Tunisia and conducted a workshop on behalf of INGID.
Theo Grosse-Kreul was in Tehran, Iran and represented INGID at the 3rd meeting of the International Congress of Immunology, Asthma and Allergy Tehran, Iran.
José Bol and Theo ran several workshops in Bern for an international audience of nurses.
Carla Duff and William Blouin flew the flag for INGID at AAAAI.
Well done to all our members and board members for all their hard work attending theses conferences and running the various workshops.
Do you have a conference, relevant for nurses that you would like to promote on our website? Please get in touch.
Have you attended a conference that you thought was particularly useful and would be willing to write a small blog/news item for INGID? Then we look forward to hearing from you.
There are further interesting events coming up in March and April in both Switzerland and Zambia.
World PI Week
World PI week is coming in April. Do not forget to look at the PI Week website. There are great ideas about promoting PID.: http://www.worldpiweek.org/
Questions for your colleagues
The following question was distributed seeking advice about an obese patient who required Ig therapy and issues surrounding transition from IVIg to SCIg. Read on for the details and some useful responses:
QUESTION:
Dear members,
A patient of mine with CVID, diabetes and obesity is interested to start SCIG or rapid push. She had stomach banding done last year and lost 35 kg, but is still 100 kg.
She does extremely well with IVIG of 40g/month.
Since she had very bad experiences with Immunologists, I can’t motivate her to visit one (as yet). But she’s willing to discuss and maybe try with me. Is there anybody who has experience with such Patients? What about the infections?
Thank you very much for any feedback
RESPONSE ONE:
She should have plenty of abdominal fat: I have several people this size. If she is on 40 g IVIg; you’re talking about 10 kg/50 cc of a 20% product weekly. You could bury that amount in someone this size with bifurcated 14 mm or 12 mm needles.
- Elizabeth M. Younger CRNP, PhD
RESPONSE TWO:
Dear colleague,
Great that the patient is interested in starting with the sc method. The obesity is not in itself a problem. Just make sure to calculate the volume base on a weekly dose of 100 mg/kg/week (corresponds to the current monthly dose). Divide the total volume between 2-4 infusion sites. The length of the needle is important; I would guess 14 mm for this patient.
Good luck,
Ann Gardulf
