Primary immune thrombocytopaenia in children – analysis of result of treatment in a single centre

Introduction
Primary immune thrombocytopaenia (ITP) occurs at a rate of 4/100,000 children per year and is characterised by an isolated decrease in thrombocyte counts below 100 × 10⁹/l with or without haemostatic disorder.

Aim of the study
The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of treatment of primary immune thrombocytopaenia (ITP) in children hospitalised in a single centre in the years 2003–2015.

Material and methods
The study covered 138 patients: 73 boys and 65 girls aged between two weeks and 17 years 5 months (median age 6 years 8 months) hospitalised due to ITP. We analysed the blood morphology at admission and after treatment. We evaluated the response to treatment as complete remission (CR) if the number of thrombocytes in the last blood count was > 100 × 10⁹/l. For partial remission (PR) we considered an increase in the number of thrombocytes compared to the number at the first morphological examination.

Results
In the analysed group of patients, complete or partial response was obtained in all cases. The highest percentage of remission in the whole group was seen after the steroid treatment, but this difference was not statistically significant. Other treatments (intravenous immunoglobulins, combination therapy, or watch-and-wait strategy) in our group had comparable results.

Conclusions
The results of primary immune thrombocytopaenia treatment are good, and most patients can have complete remission of the disease. Glucocorticoids and immunoglobulin therapy has similar efficacy; therefore, when choosing the method of treatment, clinicians are guided by the potential side effects and the age of the child.