helicobacter pylori eradication in adult patients with acute idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (itp)

Background & objective: different studies have investigated the link between helicobacter pylori (h. pylori) and extra digestive diseases such as idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (itp). however, the relationship between itp and h. pylori is less clear. most of the studies in itp have focused on h. pylori eradication in chronic itp, therefore, in this study we e focused on the effect of h. pylori eradication on chronicity of itp in the adult patients with acute itp. materials & methods: eighty five patients with acute itp whose platelet counts were less than 30 × 109/l entered into the study. urea breath test (ubt) was carried out for all the patients and based on the results they were divided into 3 groups: group i: h. pylori-positive patients who underwent standard triple therapy. evaluation of h. pylori eradication for this group was carried out in one and six months after the treatment. group ii: itp patients negative for h. pylori and group iii: itp patients positive for h. pylori but without eradication therapy. results: 52 (61.2%) patients were female and 33 (38.8%) were male with the mean age of 34.8±12.2 years old. there were no significant differences between either the mean age and gender or the mean platelet count at the baseline among the groups, but there was a statistical significant difference in the mean platelet between the groups at the end of the first month. however, significant difference was not seen in the mean platelet count in months 2 to 6. the chronicity in group i was significantly less than group iii. also, the chronicity rate in non-infected itp patients was lower than the h. pylori-positive patients (p=0.03). likewise, the chronicity rate was lower in the intervention group than in the control group (p=0.035). conclusion: our results showed that eradication of h. pylori can reduce the chronicity rate in adult patients with itp. further studies on larger number of patients with longer follow-up are recommended.