Eltrombopag, a drug used in the treatment of immune thrombocytopenia, might be cause of pseudothrombocytopenia? A case report

In refractory itp patients, megakaryocytes increase in the bone marrow because of accelerated platelet destruction. together with this increase in megakaryoctes, morphological abnormalities in megakaryocytes and platelets, e.g.an increase of immature megakaryocytes, degenerative changes of the nucleus and cytoplasm, are also observed in the peripheral blood smear. therefore, peripheral blood smear examinations are important in preventing the wrong treatment. a refractory itp case is presented here; where the automated haematological evaluation of the thrombocyte count differs from the thrombocyte count of the peripheral blood smear.