Factors linked to severe thrombocytopenia during antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis c and pretreatment low platelet counts
Published: 18 January 2012
Download PDF
Abstract (provisional)
Background
Baseline low platelet count (<150,000/uL) increases the risk of on-treatment severe thrombocytopenia (platelet count <50,000/uL) in patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) undergoing antiviral therapy, which may interrupt treatment. The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors for severe thrombocytopenia during treatment for CHC in patients with baseline thrombocytopenia.
Methods
Medical records were reviewed for 125 patients with CHC treated with antiviral therapy according to the standard of care, with regular follow-up examinations. Early platelet decline was defined as platelet decrease during the first 2 weeks of therapy.
Results
Severe thrombocytopenia developed in 12.8% of patients with baseline thrombocytopenia, and predicted a higher therapeutic dropout rate. Multivariate analysis revealed baseline platelet count <100,000/uL and rapid early platelet decline (>30% decline in the first 2 weeks) were significantly associated with severe thrombocytopenia (P<0.001 and 0.003, odds ratios, 179.22 and 45.74, respectively). In these patients, baseline PLT [greater than or equal to] 100,000/uL and lack of rapid early platelet decline predicted absence of severe thrombocytopenia (negative predictive values were 95.1% and 96.6%, respectively). In contrast, baseline platelet count <100,000/uL combined with rapid early platelet decline predicted severe thrombocytopenia (positive predictive value was 100%).
Conclusions
For patients with CHC on antiviral therapy, baseline platelet counts <100,000/uL and rapid early platelet decline can identify patients at high risk of developing on-treatment severe thrombocytopenia.
The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF and HTML versions are in production.
No comments:
Post a Comment