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Jacqueline Brassard, Brian Curtis, Richard Cooper, John Ferguson, Wendy Komocsar, Maria Ehardt, Stuart Kupfer, Clement Maurath, Edward Swabb, Christopher Cannon, Richard Aster
Acute Thrombocytopenia in Patients Treated with the Oral Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa Inhibitors Xemilofiban and Orbofiban: Evidence for an Immune Etiology
Thrombocytopenic episodes occurring in 18,845 patients treated with the GPIIb/IIIa inhibitors xemilofiban and orbofiban (fibans) were analyzed by a blinded review panel and 73 patients were classified as having possible fiban-induced thrombocytopenia. When the treatment codes were broken, a significant association between drug exposure and assignment to this group was found (p <0.001). Twenty-eight (82%) of 34 archived serum samples from these patients contained fiban-dependent antibodies specific for GPIIb/IIIa, but no such antibodies were found in 61 drug treated patients not classified as having possible fiban-induced thrombocytopenia (p <0.001). We conclude that fiban-dependent antibodies were the major cause of acute, severe thrombocytopenia in patients judged on the basis of clinical findings to have thrombocytopenia possibly-induced by xemilofiban and orbofiban. Measurement of drug-dependent antibodies may be helpful in determining the basis for acute thrombocytopenia in fiban-treated patients and possibly for identification of patients at risk to develop thrombocytopenia.
Thrombosis and Haemostasis, Schattauer
Print ISSN: 0340-6245
Volume: 88, 12/2002
Pages: 892 - 897