Hematologic Response to Steroid Use in Patients with Primary Immune Thrombocytopenia: A Research Study in a Salvadoran Population

Introduction. Thrombocytopenia Immune (ITP) is an acquired thrombocytopenia caused by autoantibodies against platelet antigens. It is one of the more common causes of thrombocytopenia in otherwise asymptomatic adults. The use of high-doses dexamethasone has proven efficacy and safety in previously untreated patients with immune thrombocytopenia even though these findings are not entirely clear yet. AIM. The primary goal to assess the global response (platelets >30 x 109/L) and complete response (platelets >100 x 109/L) within the different implemented regimes in previously untreated adult with primary immune thrombocytopenia. Further goals aimed to describe the clinical characteristic of patients with primary immune thrombocytopenia and the most frequent adverse events in the use of steroids. Results. A total of 44 patients were treated with steroids, 16 patients in the high-dose dexamethasone (HD-DXM) group, 23 patients received methylprednisolone (MTP) and 5 patients with prednisone (PDN). The female gender was the most affected in all the groups with 61.3% (n=27) presenting more cases than the female sex in the methylprednisolone group 65.2% (n=15), although without significant statistical difference (P = 0.384). The mean age of onset was 38, 44, and 40 years, respectively (P = 0.352). The most frequent clinical manifestations were purpura sicca (petechiae and bruising) with 75%, 91.3% and 60.0%, for the dexamethasone, methylprednisolone and prednisone groups, respectively. The mean platelet count in the groups was around the mean of 26 x 109/L, with the methylprednisolone group presenting the lowest values (3 x 109/L). The overall response was different for the three groups (87.5% vs 95.6% vs 100%, P = 0.43) with a complete response of 56.2% vs 60.8% vs 80.0% (P = 0.85). Early response was achieved in the methylprednisolone group with 3.5 days, versus dexamethasone with 4.0 days and prednisone with 7 days. The sustained response at 6 months was lower in the prednisone group 80.0%. The most frequent adverse events occurred in the HD-DXM group with fatigue in 31.2% (n = 5) followed by edema, hyperglycemia and insomnia with 18.7% (n = 3). Conclusions. Our study demonstrated that PDN provides greater overall responses as initial treatment in ITP. MTP provides the fastest responses followed by HD-DXM. The sustained response was maintained in the HD-DXM Group. The HD-DXM group presented 68.7% cases with at least one adverse event associated with the use of the steroid. The findings suggest continuing to perform more studies in our population.