Immune thrombocytopenic purpura in children

Immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is the most commonly acquired bleeding illness in children. 70-80% of children resolve from acute state within few weeks and months with a complete retrospective changes in recovery of reference values. The aim of this work was to evaluate a group of patients with diagnosis of ITP treated or followed from 1979 to 1999. There were found no differences in achieving the remission in the acute phase of ITP (this means till the 6th month from the first documented thrombocytopenia) according to retrospective analysis and comparison of three groups of children in whom the diagnosis of ITP was made from 1979 to 1991 (group A), from 1992 to 1994 (group B) and from 1995 to 1999 (group C). The groups differed in their therapeutic strategies in various time periods as to the time of the diagnosis. In group A, 75% of patients were treated with oral corticosteroids (prednisone). In group B, 10.8% of patients were treated with i.v. application of corticosteroids and 43.3% had no therapy in the acute phase. In group C, 28% of patients were treated with i.v. application of corticosteroids and 36.6% of patients had no therapy applied. A comparable degree of remission in the acute phase with 48%, 54%, or 50% of children with reference values of platelets at the time of six months from the beginning of the disease were achieved. In the group A, the remission was achieved in 85% of children at the end of the 5th year of the follow-up, in the group B in 75% of children to the latest control of platelets in our outcome clinic for children and follow up in the group C in 68% of children the remission was achieved after one year. (Tab. 4, Fig. 2, Ref. 10.)