Immune Thrombocytopenia Video Perspectives

In this video, James B. Bussel, MD, hematologist and professor emeritus at Weill Cornell Medicine, discusses:

• The “disappointing” lack of improvement in diagnostic information for immune thrombocytopenia in recent years;
• How although the use of combination treatment for immune thrombocytopenia might improve patient care, there may or may not be “financial issues of using two treatments — each of which is relatively expensive — at the same time;”
• The biggest challenges in immune thrombocytopenia treatment, including how clinicians do not always know whether patients will respond to a specific treatment, whether “a given patient is going to have their disease go away in months to years, or not,” and whether or not patients will be at increased risk for bleeding and other complications;
• The treatment of immune thrombocytopenia in children, and how managing children with the condition is easier in some ways, as “give or take, 80% of [immune thrombocytopenia] in children will go away on its own within 6 months,” and many do not need treatment;
• Potential reasons for a heightened risk for immune thrombocytopenia in women of childbearing age, despite no gender disparity among patients below or above childbearing age;
• How the ability to prognosticate is “the advance that’s needed the most” in immune thrombocytopenia, as “we really don’t have a good handle on that;” and
• Considerations for COVID-19 vaccinations in patients with immune thrombocytopenia, including those who appear at the greatest risk for worsening immune thrombocytopenia following COVID-19 vaccination, and that “in general, people respond well to treatment and their counts will get better within a few weeks.”