Incidence of thrombocytopenia in an acute care hospital.
Our recent survey recorded thrombocytopenia in 1 per 105.5 adults inpatients in an acute care hospital. Less than 30% of these patients demonstrated any bleeding manifestations. The high pickup rate of asymptomatic thrombocytopenia is a spin off from the current practice of recording the platelet count with every full blood count request. 46.6% of our thrombocytopenic patients had an underlying infection. The high association between thrombocytopenia and infection justifies a search for an infective process when one encounters an unexpected or unexplained reduction in the platelet count.
Teo
C P
CP
Department of Medicine, National University Hospital.
Kueh
Y K
YK
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007239:Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010976:Platelet Count; D012846:Singapore / Q000453:epidemiology; D013921:Thrombocytopenia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology