Open AccessPlatelet cold agglutinins and thrombocytopenia: A diagnostic dilemma in the intensive care unit
Author(s) -
Tv Bharath Kumar,
Neerja Bhardwaj
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of anaesthesiology-clinical pharmacology/journal of anaesthesiology clinical pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 2231-2730
pISSN - 0970-9185
DOI - 10.4103/0970-9185.125711
Subject(s) - platelet , medicine , cold agglutinin , confusion , etiology , ethylene diamine , intensive care unit , gastroenterology , immunology , antibody , chemistry , psychology , psychoanalysis , nuclear chemistry
We report a case of pseudo-thrombocytopenia due to cold agglutinins against platelets. These cold agglutinins were the cause for diagnostic confusion and resulted in extensive workup and unnecessary therapeutic precautions. A thirty two year old female with Guillain-Barre syndrome was admitted in the ICU and serial work-up showed markedly low levels of platelets. The patient had no symptoms of bleeding and patient was investigated extensively for deciphering the etiology of low platelet count. In-vitro clumping of platelets was suspected and in-vitro studies showed marked clumping of platelets with ethylene-diamine-tetra-acetic acid, citrate and heparinized samples. The manual platelet count was found to be within normal limits. Thrombocytopenia as a result of platelet cold agglutinins is a rare cause of in-vitro low platelet counts. No clinical problems have been reported due to the same.