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Equipment designed to allow the extracorporeal illumination of blood products. These devices typically consist of a main unit containing ultraviolet light bulbs arrayed above a shaking tray intended to accommodate a plastic bag containing the blood product. Photoactivation units are typically used to perform the photoactivation step of extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) procedures, in which blood cells (typically leukocytes) collected in an apheresis procedure are mixed with a photosensitizing drug (e.g., 8-methoxypsoralen) that is activated by exposure to light of the appropriate wavelength (e.g., UVA light). ECP procedures may be used in the treatment of several diseases, including palliative treatment of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and graft-versus-host disease.
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