Thrombophilia in patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia

Abstract

An increased risk of thromboembolic events among patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia has been reported but is still not fully understood. A thrombophilia panel (factors suspected/known to denote a thrombophilic state or indicate activation of the clotting cascade) was measured in previously treated patients with chronic immune thrombocytopenia enrolled in an eltrombopag trial to assess potential thrombophilia risk markers. Of 167 patients, 136 (81%) had abnormal levels of at least 1 known or suspected thrombosis risk marker or coagulation cascade activation marker. Six patients reported thromboembolic events, and all of these patients had at least two abnormal analytes in the thrombophilia panel. The presence of multiple baseline thrombophilia risk markers support the theory that chronic immune thrombocytopenia is a pro-thrombotic disease.

Key Words::

• Blood coagulation
• fibrinolysis
• immune thrombocytopenic purpura
• blood platelets
• thrombosis

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Nancy Price, PhD, of AOI Communications, L.P., for editorial support (assembling tables, collating author comments, copyediting, fact checking, and referencing); her support was funded by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Funding for this study (NCT01098487) was provided by GSK.

Declaration of interest: RSMW received research funding from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). KB is an employee of and holds equity ownership in GSK. AB is a former employee of GSK. KB and AB designed the study; RSMW treated patients in the study; all authors analyzed the data; AB wrote the first draft of the manuscript; and all authors critically reviewed the draft manuscript and approved the final version for submission.

Trial registration: clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT01098487