Prise en charge du purpura thrombopénique immunologique en France avant la mise à disposition des agonistes du récepteur à la thrombopoïétine

Second-line treatment trends and long-term outcomes of 392 children with chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura: the French experience over the past 25 years

Childhood chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (cITP) is a rare disease. In severe cases, there is no evidence for the optimal therapeutic strategy. Our aim was to describe the real-life management of non-selected children with cITP at diagnosis. Since 2004, patients less than 18 years old with cITP have been enrolled in the national prospective cohort, OBS'CEREVANCE. From 1990 to 2014, in 29 centres, 392 children were diagnosed with cITP. With a median follow-up of six years (2·0-25), 45% did not need second-line therapy, and 55% (n = 217) received one or more second lines, mainly splenectomy (n = 108), hydroxychloroquine (n = 61), rituximab (n = 61) or azathioprine (n = 40). The overall five-year further second-line treatment-free survival was 56% [95% CI 49·5-64.1]. The use of splenectomy significantly decreased over time. Hydroxychloroquine was administered to children with positive antinuclear antibodies, more frequently older and girls, and reached 55% efficacy. None of the patients died. Ten years after the initial diagnosis, 55% of the 56 followed children had achieved complete remission. Children with cITP do not need second-line treatments in 45% of cases. Basing the treatment decision on the pathophysiological pathways is challenging, as illustrated by ITP patients with positive antinuclear antibodies treated with hydroxychloroquine.

Management of immune thrombocytopenia in adults: a population-based analysis of the French hospital discharge database from 2009 to 2012

The present study describes the current clinical practice and hospital management of adults with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) between 2009 and 2012 in France, based on the national discharge hospital database. Adult ITP patients were managed almost exclusively in public hospitals. A relatively stable number of patients, around 3200 per year, were hospitalized for ITP annually over the 4-year period, about two-thirds of whom were newly-diagnosed ITP. Re-hospitalizations tended to decrease over the study period. Intravenous immunoglobulin administration, concerning half of ITP hospitalized patients, and rituximab administration were stable over time, whereas a slight decrease of splenectomies was observed.

[Treatments with immunoglobulin and thrombotic adverse events]

Treatments with intravenous or subcutaneous immunoglobulin (Ig) are used in a broad variety of disorders. Tolerance of Ig is usually good but adverse events, including some serious ones, have been reported and may differ among different Ig preparations. Thrombotic complications occur in 0.6 to 13% of cases and can involve arterial or venous circulation, rarely both. Deep venous thrombosis with or without pulmonary embolism, stroke or myocardial infarction remained the most frequent thrombotic complications. Some risk factors have been identified, mainly old age, multiple cardiovascular risk factors, and past history of thrombo-embolic manifestations. Several mechanisms are suggested to explain this increased risk of thrombotic complications. Indeed, Ig treatments increase the plasma viscosity, increase and activate platelets, can trigger the coagulation cascade through the presence of activated factor XI in some Ig preparations, and release vasoactive molecules responsible for vasospasm. Patients have to be carefully monitored and risk factors to be identified as soon as possible. The role of antiplatelets or anticoagulation is not well determined but should probably be proposed to patients with high risk.