Badshah Khan, Pervaiz Ahmed, Memona Mushtaq, Shafiqur Rahman.
Gestational Thrombocytopenia and it`s Vertical Transmission.
Pak Armed Forces Med J Jan ;49(1):3-6.

Various studies carried out in the western countries have reported mild degree of self-limiting thrombocytopenia in 5-8% of healthy mothers during pregnancy without developing any haemostatic defect or a tendency of vertical transmission to their neonates. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in order to determine the incidence of such an asymptomatic, incidentally detected mild gestational thrombocytopenia (G-ITP) in healthy pregnant women and to evaluate its transplacental transmission, in the local population. One hundred healthy pregnant women and 100 patients (pregnant or non pregnant) were randomly selected for the study and their platelet counts were estimated. In total agreement with the results of the earlier studies, eight women were detected to be mildly thrombocytopenic, exhibiting no adverse clinical effects. Cord blood estimation of platelet counts amongst their neonates showed only one case of clinically benign mild thrombocytopenia. But this apparently high incidence of 12.5%, statistically turned out to be non-significant. Hence it was concluded that about 8% of healthy pregnant women are likely to exhibit mild thrombocytopenia without suffering from any untoward clinical consequences, and their neonates are not likely to be thrombocytopenic. Since the condition is self-limiting, totally harmless and benign, therefore no active intervention is required. But on account of the unavailability of any test to reliably differentiate it from idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), especially when encounted first time in pregnancy, a close surveillance and guarded reassurance is advisable.

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