PB1352 - A Survey on anticoagulation in Patient with ITP

Background: The number of patients who require anticoagulation e.g., for atrial fi-brillation is increasing and sometimes also affects patients with im-mune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Detailed studies on anticoagulation in thrombocytopenia are. In studies on ITP, patients with anticoagulation are usually excluded and on the other hand, patients with thrombocy-topenia are often excluded from anticoagulation studies. The goal of this survey was to find out which factors influence the decision making on anticoagulation and ITP-therapy in patients in daily practice.

Aims: The goal of this survey was to find out which factors influence the decision making on anticoagulation and ITP-therapy in patients in daily practice.

Methods: We performed a questionnaire/survey to investigate the preferred management of anticoagulation in ITP patients. The survey described hypothetical patient scenarios and asked potentially influencing fac-tors on the recommendation whether to initiate an anticoagulation or not.

Results: We surveyed 229 physicians in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 210 were specialised in haematology, 13 had subspecialty training in haemostaseology. 100 of them stated, they see 5-10 ITP patients per month. Overall, recommended platelet thresholds for antithrombotic therapy were similar between ITP specialists. Most of the colleagues recommended a minimum platelet count of 50 × 109/L for anticoagula-tion therapy in most scenarios, see table (further tables and results will be presented at the meeting).

Conclusion(s): Anticoagulation in patients with ITP is still a challenge. Obviously, a platelet count above 50 × 109/L is generally regarded as safe. If pa-tients have a lower platelet count, other influencing factors like bleed-ing tendency, comorbidities and psycho-social status become rele-vant. Guidelines are very helpful.