ITP (Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura) is a blood clotting disorder in which the platelet count is the blood is too low. Platelets are par of the body's system for preventing bleeding. The normal platelet count is 150,000 - 400,000 per cu/ml. (as of 8/9/09 Jackson's count was 3,000) A count below 10,000 is potentially a medical emergency, as the patient may be vulnerable to subarachnoid or intracerebral hemorrhage as a result of moderate head trauma.
The incidence of ITP is estimated at 50–100 new cases per million per year, with children accounting for half of that amount. Children often develop ITP after a viral infection and usually recover fully without treatment. But the cause of ITP is not really known. It is known, however, that in people with idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, the immune system malfunctions and begins attacking platelets as if they were foreign substances.
Antibodies produced by your immune system attach themselves to the platelets, marking the platelets for destruction. The spleen, which helps your body fight infection, recognizes the antibodies and removes the platelets from your system. The result of this case of mistaken identity is a lower number of platelets than normal.
Ordinarily, you have anywhere from 150,000 to 450,000 platelets per cu/ml of circulating blood. As the number of platelets decreases, your risk of bleeding increases. The greatest risk is when your platelet count falls very low — below 10,000 platelets per cu/ml. At this point, internal bleeding may occur despite a lack of any injury, although this is rare.
In children, ITP usually runs its course without the need for treatment. About 80 percent of children with ITP recover completely within six months. Even in children who develop chronic ITP, complete recovery may still occur, even years later.
**This information all taken from Mayo Clinic, Wikipedia and Children's Hospital.
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