Objectives: To determine the predictors for chronic and/or persistent ITP among children with newly diagnosed ITP.
Methods: Ours was a mixed-design study (prospective: January 2020 to March 2022 and retrospective: January 2014 to December 2019), wherein we enrolled children, aged 1 month to 18 years presenting with newly diagnosed ITP.
Results: Of the 64 enrolled participants, 58 were followed up for atleast 1-year duration and 6 children were followed up for 3 to 12 months' duration. The median (IQR) age of the cohort was 8 (5, 11) years with a female preponderance (62.5%). Wet bleeding was seen in 56%; 6.25% developed intracranial bleeding. 67.2% (43/64) and 41.4% (24/58) children developed persistent and chronic ITP, respectively. Of the 34 children who achieved complete response at 12-months follow up, 21 (62%) achieved complete response by 3 months and the rest achieved complete response over the next 9 months. Development of overall response (complete or partial) at 3 and 12 months, was associated with a higher absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) at admission. The median ALC (×103/µL) at admission was 3.77 and 2.87 in children who had overall response and no response at 3 months respectively (P = 0.03). The median ALC (×103/µL) at admission was 3.99 and 2.96 in children who had overall response and no response at 12 months respectively (P = 0.04). Response rate was lesser in the treated group by approximately 10% than the non-treated group, which could be an indicator of poor response probability in aggressive form of disease.
Conclusion: The rate of chronicity and intracranial bleeding in our cohort is more than the reported rates in literature. Higher ALC was found to be associated with response.