Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura: A 5-Year Study, Our Experience at a Tertiary Care Centre

Introduction: The disease that was formerly termed idiopathic thrombocytopenia (ITP) is now called immune thrombocytopenia. Immune mediated thrombocytopenia is caused by autoantibodies or alloantibodies. Auto- antibodyrelated immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is the most common cause of immune thrombocytopenia. It can be acute or chronic, idiopathic (primary) or secondary. Acute ITP occurs mostly in children and is commonly associated with viral infections, while adult ITP may be primary or secondary to infections, other systemic diseases or drugs and is a diagnosis of exclusion. Patients often present with petechiae, bruising, mucosal bleeding and rare presention of thromboembolic episodes. Objective: This is a 5-year retrospective study with analysis of ITP cases, age and sex incidence, clinical and hematological findings done at a tertiary care centre. Results: Total number of cases was 38. Age group ranged from 11- 40 years with mean age of 26.28 years. Male to female ratio was 1:2.8.Epistaxis was the commonest clinical presentation. Hematological data showed platelet count below 1.5 lakhs per decilitre of blood with normal and giant platelets in morphology. Bone marrow examination showed normal and increased number of megakaryocytes.