How can parents detect that their child has immune thrombocytopenia?
Parents will usually see bleeding spots on their child’s skin mucosa. For example, because capillaries in the lower extremities are generally particularly thin and brittle, small bleeding spots can be found on both lower extremities when walking frequently. If parents notice a sudden increase in bleeding spots on their child’s legs, they should come to the hospital. Another time to detect ITP is when a routine blood test reveals thrombocytopenia. However, most cases are found when parents notice bleeding spots on their child’s body or nose bleeds.
What are the earliest sites of bleeding in immune thrombocytopenia?
The bleeding caused by thrombocytopenia is superficial bleeding from the skin and mucous membranes, so the earliest manifestations of bleeding are on the skin and mucous membranes. For example, arms, legs, etc. What tests are needed to diagnose ITP?
The most straightforward diagnostic criteria for ITP are the presence of bleeding in the skin and mucous membranes and a decrease in platelet count, but further exclusion of other thrombocytopenic disorders, such as aplastic anemia, which also causes thrombocytopenia, is required.
Simply put, if we compare reblastosis and ITP to two plots of land, reblastosis is a desert where no crops can grow at all, while ITP is a good piece of land where crops could have grown, but the crops were eaten by locusts and there were no crops. In ITP, the thrombocytopenia is due to the production of platelet antibodies, which are substances that fight platelets, so the body is screened for this particular antibody. In the case of retrolisthesis, it is because there are no megakaryocytes forming in the bone marrow, which has to be detected with the help of a bone marrow aspiration or biopsy.
So, to determine if the land that can’t grow crops is a desert or because locusts have eaten the crops, a bone marrow aspiration is done to determine the number of megakaryocytes. A high number of megakaryocytes means that the bone marrow platelet proliferation is good, and the absence of megakaryocytes is a disorder of hematopoiesis, such as a reocclusion.
Diagnosis can also be made by trying treatment. When treating a child with hormones is effective and platelet input is ineffective, it can indicate that the thrombocytopenia is due to immune destruction.
What are the effects of bone marrow aspiration on children?
A child’s bones are very delicate, leading parents to think that a bone marrow puncture is scary. In fact, bone marrow puncture has been simplified by choosing flat bones, such as the spine and sternum, which have the best growth of bone marrow within them and a very thin cortex in childhood, making them easy to puncture. When performing a bone marrow puncture, you only need to use a normal 10 ml venipuncture needle and gently stick it in to take about 0.2-0.5 ml of bone marrow, which will not affect the child.