Contemporary treatment of immune thrombocytopenia

Marina Izak1, James Bruce Bussel

  • 11NY Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College, Division of Pediatric Hematology Oncology, 525 East 68th Street, Payson Pavilion 695, New York, NY 10065, USA.

Immune thrombocytopenia is an autoimmune-mediated disorder and the treatment strategies were directed mainly to suppression of the immune system or to removal of the spleen as a place of thrombocyte destruction. In last years, it was shown that other mechanisms are responsible for development of immune thrombocytopenia: reduced thrombocyte lifespan and ineffective marrow platelet production. New treatment strategies, such as thrombopoietin receptor agonists, were developed to overcome this mechanism. Still there are a difficult minority of patients unresponsive to multiple treatments, whose have severe bleeding and another group of patients with extensive morbidity from therapy, not restricted to steroids. In this review, focused on adult patients, we discuss newer results of therapies and consider newer treatment strategies.

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