Dabigatran as a therapeutic possibility in heparin-induced thrombocytopenia type II

Abstract

The syndrome of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT), with an incidence of 0.2-0.5% in patients exposed to heparin for more than 4 days, is produced by an immune alteration with the formation of antibodies against the heparin platelet factor 4 complex. It presents a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations, the most frequent of which are thrombocytopenia, thrombotic arterial-venous phenomena, and cutaneous necrosis. Up to the present, lepiridin, recently suspended, and argatroban (direct thrombin inhibitors) have been the approved medicines normally used in treatment, administered in parenteral form. Dabigatran, a new anticoagulant medicine that is a direct and reversible thrombin inhibitor, could theoretically be a medicine employed in treating HIT. According to the bibliography consulted we are presenting the first case of HIT treated with dabigatran in the medical literature.