TITLE:
Fresh frozen plasma induced thrombocytopenia
AUTHORS:
Alexandra Drakaki, Elizabeth P. Blanchard
KEYWORDS:
Thrombocytopenia; Fresh Frozen Plasma; Blood Products
JOURNAL NAME:
Case Reports in Clinical Medicine,
Vol.2 No.2,
May
9,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Transfusions of blood products are common in medical practice and can be
lifesaving in certain situations. Potentially life threatening reactions could
occur and physicians should be alerted. Here we describe a case of
thrombocytopenia that was induced by transfusion of fresh frozen plasma (FFP).
A 52 years old male presented to the emergency department after two episodes of hematochezia that resolved spontaneously.
Since he was anticoagulated for atrial fibrillation he was given a unit
of FFP to reverse a slightly elevated INR. Within 6 hours from the administration
of the FFP he developed an acute decrease only in his platelet count. He was
managed conservatively and his thrombocytopenia started resolving gradually. After excluding other causes the
potential diagnosis was fresh frozen plasma induced thrombocytopenia. The pathophysiologic
mechanism is postulated to be immune mediated by passive transfer of antibodyies
from the donor to the recipient. The antibodies that are described in the
literature are anti-HPA-1a and anti-CD-36. We reported the event to the
American Red Cross. Interestingly a male was the donor of the plasma while in
all cases in the literature the donors are females with a prior history of
pregnancy. Therefore this is the first reported case of a male blood donor
whose blood product caused immune mediated thrombocytopenia post transfusion.