Clinical features and management of pediatric patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia in a secondary care hospital in Northwest Mexico

Abstract

Introduction: Primary Immune Thrombocytopenia (PIT) is considered the most common immune hematologic disorder in children and represents a risk of morbid mortality. Despite it being a common diagnosis, its epidemiological characteristics have not been studied in our hospital. Objective: To determine the clinical and laboratorial characteristics of pediatric patients with PIT treated by the hematology service over a period of four years. Material and methods: This study was a retrospective analysis of pediatric patients with PIT who attended at the hematology service from 2014 to 2018 in the Gyneco-Obstetrics and Pediatric Hospital No. 31 in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. Medical history, clinical manifestations, laboratory results, treatment and therapeutic response, as well as recurrence and PIT classification were analyzed from their clinical files. Descriptive statistics was used, with measures of central tendency, percentages and frequencies with the SPSS v25 program. Results: A total of 57 patients were studied. The mean of age was 6.8±4.2 years, newly diagnosed PIT was present in 93.0% (n=53). The majority of patients were managed with observation alone (40.4%, n=23). The most frequent pharmacological managements used were intravenous immunoglobulin (29.8%) and steroids (19.3%). Recurrence was present in 12% of cases; 7% developed chronic PIT. Conclusion: The pattern of clinical and laboratory characteristics observed in this study are mostly similar to national and international literature. A remarkable finding was the few cases of chronic PIT.