Haemorrhagic Thrombocythaemia: a Clinical and Laboratory Study

Essential Thrombocythaemia and Peripheral Gangrene

“…It is of interest that none of our patients had any evidence of a bleeding tendency, which is a frequent complication of myeloproliferative thrombocythaemia (Hardisty and Wolff, 1955;Gunz, 1960;Fountain and Losowsky, 1962). In this context only one patient had a platelet count greater than 1 x 106/mm'.…”

Haemorrhagic Thrombocythaemia

“…From the following it appears that the platelet function thus measured remains normal in some cases but is reduced in others. Hardisty and Wolff (1955) reported poor platelet thromboplastin formation in five patients. Friedman et al (1956) studied two patients and found a platelet thromboplastin deficiency in one.…”

Primary thrombocythaemia following splenectomy

“…A lesser degree of thrombocytosis (up to 1000 x 109/1) may persist for longer periods in patients where anaemia continues following splenectomy (Hirsh and Dacie, 1966). Post-splenectomy thrombocytosis could therefore be dismissed as simply reactive, although it has been reported that splenectomy can uncover unrecognized primary thrombocythaemia (Hardisty and Wolff, 1955;Bensinger, Logue and Rundles, 1970).…”

“…Although accurate platelet counting is difficult at such concentrations, the inhibitory effect of salicylates on platelet aggregation may have aided counting reproducibility. Unfortunately, this effect also prevented demonstration of the abnormalities of platelet function known to occur in primary thrombocythaemia (Hardisty and Wolff, 1955;McClure et al, 1966).…”