Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Pupura (ITP) is a disease that targets and destroys platelets. No one is sure how this disease is contracted because the etiology is unclear. Some doctors can, however, guess how the patient contracted the disease depending on certain factors. Most of the time, they are unlikely to figure out the cause of the disease. This disease can cause someone to bleed to death if they were to get a cut because they wouldn’t have something to clot the blood. ITP does not have a cure or a treatment that works for all patients. Patients of all demographics have reacted differently to various treatments to the disease. Patients and guardians of the patient also have an ability to choose what type of treatment they would like to …show more content…
Proteomics-based Identification of Haptoglobin as a Favourable Serum Biomarker for Predicting Long-term Response to Splenectomy in Patients with Primary Immune Thrombocytopenia shows us how effective this intricate biomarker is in determining whether a patient with ITP should get a splenectomy or not. The creators of the research thought if they used two-dimensional gel electrophoresis technology coupled with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of flight mass spectrometer analysis to identify differentially expressed proteins in ITP patients with different responses to splenectomy, that they would be able to predict whether or not the patient would have a good or bad response to splenectomy. 58 patients (20 males, 38 females), who were 16-70 years old and who went through laproscopic splenectomy for chronic ITP were used as test subjects for this study. The researchers labeled each haptoglobin as a different letter. Haptoglobin A was able to determine that 34% of the 58 patients were able to get a splenectomy. Haptoglobin B was able to determine that 33% of the 58 patients were able to get a splenectomy. Haptoglobin C was able to determine that 32% of the 58 patients were able to get a splenectomy. Haptoglobin D was able to determine that 32% of the 58 patients were able to get a splenectomy. Haptoglobin E was also able to …show more content…
Within six years, researchers monitored “54 {adult} patients, who underwent splenectomy” (Liu, Dilip, Yeh, Wu, Jan, and Chen, 2013) and watched to see if they stayed away from a relapse in ITP. They would check in a one-year period, three-year period, and five-year period. They learned that after a one-year period, 91.9% of the patients were able to stay relapse-free. After three years, that number slightly decreased to 88.4%. At five years, the percentage stayed the same at 88.4%. The researchers seemed to make getting a splenectomy to be the optimal option for treatment of ITP. One of main issues of what was wrong with this study was the fact that they only used 54 patients (which in reality isn’t a lot). They were also very biased towards wanting patients to receive splenectomies that they did not even talk about the negative aspects of getting one. A splenectomy could really change a person’s life. Patients will need some understanding that even though there is a very likely chance of patients remaining relapse-free after a splenectomy, there is that small possibility that the ITP will not go away and that they will have to try some other sort of treatment. Luckily, in the long run, this