2011: ITP No longer "iddopathic"??

[PKScott]

ccjm.org/content/78/6/358.full

[Sweatheart]

How come?

[sailor]

Idiopathic simple means they do not know the root cause of the drop in platelets so one would assume "no longer" means they do know the root cause, or am I to simplistic?

[kered]

I agree with both Seatheart and Sailor. ITP is an autoimmune response diagnosed by excluding other possibilities. In most cases in adults it is still of unknown .It is therefore idiopathic and probably has a whole range of causes,hence we respond differently to different treatment.Hopefully one day we shall get an answer,but I am not holding my breath and spend no time trying to work out how,when or where to the origin of my ITP.May be that I am also missing something.Otherwise

the article in the journal is well worth reading,particularly treatment priorities in the USA.

[rjsmyth]

Used to be Idiopathic now Immune which would infer that a conclusion has been reached that this condition is directly related to a person's immune system killing off platelets. Now that is fine except in my case every drug/treatment thrown at my immune system in an attempt to curb its supposed wayward behavior did absolutely nothing!

I still call it Idiopathic.

[mags4743 in reply to rjsmyth]

Agree with you here. My immune system was blamed for my type 1 diabetes which I "acquired" at the age of 52! - quite unusual I am told. Similarly I am told again my immune system is killing off my platelets and ditto every drug I have had to supress my immune system doesn't work.

[pamphyllac in reply to rjsmyth]

I agree, Idiopathic is probably more accurate, Immune is also imprecise.