What do healthcare providers ask their patients with immune thrombocytopenia?

Abstract

Clinical signs suggestive of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) include bruising, petechiae, nose bleeds, genitourinary (GU) bleeding, gum bleeding, gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding, and gynecologic bleeding [1]. Clinical experience and adverse events in clinical trials reveal other ITP-associated symptoms such as arthritis, abdominal pain, sleep disturbances, headache, and fatigue. Asking patients about such symptoms supplements the platelet count in assessing disease status and impact, and thus helps in the design of a patient-specific management plan. A short practice patterns survey was administered to healthcare providers attending ITP Continuing Medical Education (CME) activities to assess the questions they ask patients in monitoring visits. A high percentage of respondents routinely ask about signs of bleeding and associated symptoms but not as frequently about health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Only 39% of respondents ask about difficulty with sleep. A short standardized questionnaire may be a useful tool to help healthcare providers gather information about their patients with ITP.