Abstract
Methylprednisolone (M-PSL) pulse therapy has been sporadically reported in adult patients with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) who were resistant to a standard treatment with prednisolone. This treatment is considered effective in childhood ITP, but the efficacy is not established in adult ITP.
In this report, we describe four adult patients with ITP who received M-PSL pulse therapy: two patients have maintained a long-term remission or partial remission after M-PSL pulse therapy, and a short-term effect was observed in one patient. The remaining patient, however, did not respond to M-PSL pulse therapy, nor to other treatments such as splenectomy and immunosuppressive agent.
Our results suggest that M-PSL pulse therapy is one of the favorable treatments for adult ITP patients who have a resistant disease to the standard therapy.
