impact of helicobacter pylori eradication in children with acute immune thrombocytopenia: a randomized controlled study

Background: at present, some evidence supports the role of helicobacter pylori eradication in treating childhood immune thrombocytopenia (itp). objectives: this study was designed to investigate the association between h. pylori eradication and platelet count in children with acute itp. methods: thirty children with a diagnosis of acute itp and h. pylori infection were studied. this randomized and controlled study was done in amir-kabir hospital, arak, iran. patients were randomly allocated 1:1 to standard itp and h. pylori treatments or standard itp treatment. for 6 months, studied subjects had monthly follow-ups. results: the meanstandard deviation (sd) age was 11 years with a majority of females (67.9 % vs. 32.1 %). the mean platelet count was 16.93 ± 10.1 (10^9/l) in the itp and h. pylori therapy group, and15.0 ± 3.8 (10^9/l) in the itp therapy group at the baseline. after 1 week of treatment, mean platelet counts increased to 136.5 ± 55.20 and 124.0 ± 45.70 in the two groups, respectively (10^9/l). the differences between the two groups were not statistically significant at other time intervals. children that received itp and h. pylori therapies had a higher rate of gastrointestinal symptoms (p < 0.01). conclusions: our findings suggest that h. pylori eradication did not significantly affect the platelet count compared to standard itp therapy in children with acute itp.