Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and Graves disease

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and Graves disease (Am J Med Sci. 2007 Aug;334(2):133-5). Authors are Chaar BT Kudva GC Olsen TJ et al., from the Department of Internal Medicine, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri 63110, USA. Patients with an autoimmune disease have a propensity for development of a second autoimmune disease. We report the first instance of a patient with both idiopathic thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) and Graves disease. The TTP remitted with a combination of plasmapheresis and prednisone. Methimazole led to sustained remission of the hyperthyroid state within 6 weeks. Although hyperthyroidism may induce immune imbalance causing autoimmunity, it is unclear if this influenced the development of TTP in our patient and if treatment of hyperthyroidism alone could have resulted in the cure of both diseases. To access the full abstract of the article, click here.