Fatal anaphylactoid reaction associated with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia

Heparin induced thrombocytopenia

Abstract Background and Objectives Heparin is still a commonly used anticoagulant in prophylaxis and treatment of thromboembolic events. Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is a life-threating adverse drug reaction of heparin. The diagnosis of HIT is made based on two important criteria, firstly clinical evaluation and secondly laboratory testing. In this comprehensive review, the authors w...

Anaphylactic and anaphylactoid reactions associated with lepirudin in patients with heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.

BACKGROUND Lepirudin (Refludan) is a hirudin derivative. It is a direct thrombin inhibitor obtained by recombinant technology from the medicinal leech and is approved for treatment of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia complicated by thrombosis. Because 3 cases of fatal anaphylaxis possibly associated with use of lepirudin have been reported, we initiated an investigation of putative lepirudin-as...

Fondaparinux-associated heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) is an immune-mediated clinical syndrome of thrombocytopenia and thrombosis occurring after exposure to heparin. HIT most commonly occurs after exposure to unfractionated heparin but has also been reported with low-molecular-weight heparin. To date, there have been very few reports of HIT with the pentasaccharide fondaparinux, and some have proposed fondapa...

Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia associated with thrombotic microangiopathy.

Some cases of thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) are refractory to plasma exchange therapy (PE) with persistence or recurrence of thrombocytopenia. We report two patients suffering from TMA of different aetiologies (associated with disseminated malignancy, typical haemolytic uraemic syndrome) with recurrent or persistent thrombocytopenia despite adequate therapy including PE. Since both patients ...

eComment: Plasmapheresis for near-fatal heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.