J Lab Med Qual Assur.  2002 Dec;24(2):197-200.

The Clinical Implications of Antiplatelet Antibody

• Cho HC
• Lee YK
• Kang SH
• Kim YC
• Oh YC
• Seo DH

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Antiplatelet antibody test is the most important tool for the diagnosis of immune mediated thrombocytopenia. But antiplatelet antibody can occur in various diseases and the detection rates of antiplatelet antibody differ among investigators. In this study we investigated the prevalence of antiplatelet antibody in thrombocytopenic patients with various clinical conditions and analyzed the clinical significance of antiplatelet antibody in thrombocytopenia.
METHODS
We tested 130 thrombocytopenic patients from 1999 January to 2000 October. The clinical diagnosis of the patients were 30 idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), 12 hematological diseases, 29 sepsis, 17 liver diseases, 11 pregnancy, 8 solid tumor, 2 malaria and 21 unclassified disorders. Antiplatelet antibody was detected by means of indirect immunofluorescence test.
RESULTS
Antiplatelet antibody was detected in 6.2% of total patients (8/130) ; ITP 10% (3/30), malaria infection 50%(1/2), sepsis 3.5%(1/29), liver diseases 5.9%(1/17), solid tumors 12.5%(1/8), other unclassified disorders 4.8%(1/21). Antiplatelet antibody was negative in three drug induced thrombocytopenic patients.
CONCLUSIONS
The positive rate of indirect immunofluorescent antiplatelet antibody was unexpectedly low in immune mediated thrombocytopenia. The positive results of non-immune mediated thrombocytopenia may be related to various conditions such as past platelet transfusions.

Keyword

Antiplatelet antibody; Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura; Thrombocytopenia

MeSH Terms

Diagnosis
Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect
Hematologic Diseases
Humans
Liver Diseases
Malaria
Platelet Transfusion
Pregnancy
Prevalence
Purpura, Thrombocytopenic, Idiopathic
Research Personnel
Sepsis
Thrombocytopenia