Treating Chronic Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura -- A New Application of an Old Treatment

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Abstract
Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura is a common problem in hematologic practice. The acute form of the disease, which affects mainly children, is almost always self-limited. The physician's role in these cases is to tide the patient over the attack, sometimes with a brief course of corticosteroids or intravenous immune globulin. Chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura is a far more troublesome disorder. The typical patient is a woman in her 30s who bruises easily and has gingival bleeding or epistaxis and, often, menorrhagia. Petechiae are prominent findings, but splenomegaly is not a feature of the disease. Dangerous spontaneous hemorrhage is unusual, even when . . .