little red dots and bruises - what to watch out for with ITP - Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura

[fififlores]

I´ve looked (although not that thoroughly)through the talk boards but I haven´t found anything on children having this.

My ds, aged 16.5 months, developed a sudden bright red rash on his leg (i thought meningitis, as you would), and lots of bruises on his legs. I was in hospital for something else, and a sharp-eyed doctor spotted the marks on his legs (I thought they were just cos he still falls over all the time) and immediately sent him off for a blood test.

Turns out he had ITP - basically, very low level of blood platelets (normally 250-400,000 per something, he had 3,000) and he was rushed to the children´s hospital in an ambulance, given treatment to start producing platelets again, and kept in for 5 days till his platelet levels went back up again (they´re still not at normal levels). We´re back home now, and in for a blood test next week, by which time hopefully they´ll be up to 250,000, then will be monitored regularly for a few months at least.

I had never heard of this, nor would I have known about the symptoms. But if that dr hadn´t been so efficient, ds could have started bleeding spontaneously in his brain, organs, or pretty much anywhere. A bad fall or a cut could have been fatal, as his blood might not have clotted properly.

anyway, I wanted to see a) if anyone else´s ds or dd has had this and b) for other people to be aware of the symptoms to look out for.

bumping this for you to raise awareness.

I have a vague memory of my elder sister having something called purpura when she was a kid. She was covered in bruises and they thought she had leukemia at the time (thank goodness it wasn't) it was apparently caused by an allergic reaction to rubella (the disease not the vaccine). I seem to think she was put on steroids.

Anyway, glad your ds is ok. Give that doctor a medal!

Damn right. I almost want to go back to hospital and thank him, or do whatever the opposite of a complaint is!! At the time, he also mentioned leukemia, at which point I almost collapsed in a heap!!

Your sister´s case goes to show that the cause/trigger can be very varied - and usually unknown (that´s what the idiopathic bit means).

I didn´t realise how wobbly I was still feeling until I nearly burst into tears just now signing an official, rather scary and unintelligible (my Spanish is good - I live in Spain - but legalese is horrendous) form !!

one of my friends has chronic ITP (and has done since she was little - she's now in her 30s). she would develop extreme tiredness and bruises every so often and eventually they removed her spleen which destroys the platelets (ITP is an autoimmune disease) and has been better since.

the only thing i would add is she has developed a few alergies that give her anaphalaxis (thought to be linked to the ITP) so just watch gving your lo peanuts and similar

hth

Ds´s platelet count has gone back down again, so they gave him another treatment of gammaglobulin this morning. if that doesnñt work, they say they´ll have to do a bone marrow biopsy and maybe give him steroids. god i really really hope it doesnñt come to that.