Immune thrombocytopenia: Getting back to basics

Abstract

Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is an autoimmune disorder characterized by a low platelet count and an increased risk of bleeding. The first report of what was possibly ITP dates back to 1557 in a description of a boy “with dark macules, resembling flea bites, had no fever and for several days had bloody discharges, eventually recovering” [1]. Two centuries later, Paul Werlhof described the disorder under the name of Morbus Maculosus Hemorrhagicus, which later became known as M. Maculosus Werlhofii after the physician who first classified it. It wasn’t until the ability to readily count platelets and the first successful splenectomy in 1916 that the modern day version of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura—recently renamed immune thrombocytopenia—became known.