Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast. My name is Tom, and in this episode I'm going to be

talking to you about idiopathic thrombocytopinic purer. And if you want to follow along with written

notes on this topic, you can follow along at zero definals.com slash ITP or in the hematology section of the zero definals pediatrics book.

So let's get straight into it.

Idiopathic thrombocytopinic purpura or ITP is a condition characterized by idiopathic, meaning

spontaneous, thrombocitopenia, meaning low platelet counts, causing a purpuric rash or a non blanching rash.

ITP is caused by a type 2 hypersensitivity reaction. It's caused by the production of antibodies that target and destroy platelets.

This can happen spontaneously or it could be triggered by something such as a viral infection.

A quick tom tip for you, ITP is worth remembering as a key differential diagnosis of a non-blanching rash.

So how does it present? ITP typically presents in children

under 10 years of age. Often there's a history of a recent viral illness that triggered the event.

The onset of symptoms occur over 24 to 48 hours with bleeding, for example from the gums, nosebleeds or heavy periods,

bruising and patechial or a purpureic rash, which is caused by bleeding under the skin.

Here's a tom tip on non blanching rashes.

Patikiye are pin-prick spots around 1 mm of bleeding under the skin.

Purpura are larger 3 to 10mm spots of bleeding under the skin.

When a large area of blood is collected more than 10 millimeters,

this is called echymosis.

And these are all non-blanching lesions.

Let's discuss the management of idiopathic thrombocytopinic pulpura.

The condition can be confirmed by doing an urgent full blood count for the platelet count.

Other values on the full blood count should be normal,

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