[Gabexate mesilate induced recovery from thrombocytopenia in a patient with acute ITP]

A 47-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital complaining of subcutaneous hemorrhages. She had taken medicine because of a common cold one month before admission, and two weeks after that, she noticed the hemorrhagic diathesis. Laboratory data on admission were as follows; 1,000/microliters of platelet count (PLT), normal myelogram, normal coagulation tests, positive PAIgG and anti-platelet antibody. She was diagnosed as idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura and a standard dose of prednisolone was started immediately. However, on the 3rd hospital day (HD), frequent hematemesis from submucosal hematomas developed. Pulse therapy of methylprednisolone and immunoglobulin therapy were ineffective. From the 15th HD slow drip infusion of vincristine and continuous drip infusion of 1, 500 mg/day of gabexate mesilate (GM) were started. Because PLT increased to 85,000/microliters and hematemesis disappeared on the 22nd HD, GM was discontinued. However on the 25th HD, PLT decreased to 1,000/microliters again. After re-starting GM, PLT was maintained at over 100,000/microliters. Subsequent examinations ruled out collagen diseases but revealed that she had Hashimoto's thyroiditis. We concluded that the complement inhibitory action of gabexate mesilate might have contributed to PLT increase in this case, as has been previously reported in three other cases.