Bernard Soulier Syndrome: 10 years' experience at a tertiary care hospital

To determine clinical manifestations and laboratory findings in patients with BSS diagnosed through platelet aggregometry followed in a tertiary care hospital in Lahore, Pakistan.

The retrospective study comprised patients who presented in Hematology and Transfusion Medicine Department of The Children Hospital & Institute of Child Health, Lahore with the relevant diagnosis from 2006 to 2013. The result of all the patients were collected on a predesigned proforma. Medical data was scrutinized to collect age, gender, clinical findings along with results of complete blood count, bleeding time and platelet aggregation studies for the diagnosis of Bernard Soulier Syndrome.

Among 49 patients, 26 patients were females and 23 males. The mean age of the patients was 5±2.5 years. 81% had a family history of consanguinity. The most common presenting symptom included epistaxis seen in 73.4% patients. Complete blood count demonstrated decreased platelets in 85.7% of patients ranging from 20 X 10⁹/L to 130 X 10⁹/L. Anemia was seen in 67.3% and 93.8% had prolonged bleeding time. Peripheral blood smears demonstrated giant platelets in all patients. The majority of patients 65.3% had mild bleeding episodes. Platelet aggregation studies showed normal aggregation with ADP, Collagen and Epinephrine in 100% of our patients whereas all showed no response of aggregation with Ristocetin.

Our data is consistent with other reports regarding clinical presentation of BSS, but we report large number of BSS patients from our area, emphasizing significance to provide diagnostic services in Pakistan to find out exact magnitude of disease.