Lymphocytosis in Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura Patients Infected by Helicobacter pylori

Background and Objectives: Several recent reports have demonstrated a close linkage between idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection in some patient’s populations. However, the pathogenetic mechanisms of H. pylori-induced thrombocytopenia remain obscure. Therefore, we investigated the prevalence of H. pylori infection pylori and performed a comparative analysis of a subset of H. pylori-infected patients (group A) with non-infected patients (group B) using the standard statistical methods. Design and Methods: From December 2001 to October 2002, we investigated the presence of gastric H. pylori infection in 30 adult ITP patients and 19 patients were treated with standard antibiotic therapy for H. pylori eradication (amoxicillin and clarithromycin plus lansoprazole combination). We used the standard statisticsto analyze the difference between group A and group B. Results: H. pylori eradication was achieved in 17/19 (89.4%) H.pylori-infected patients. An improvement of platelet count was observed in 14/19 patients (73.6%) who achieved the eradication. Five of these patients achieved CR (two patients were with the acute ITP) and nine patients reached PR. The difference between the mean platelet count ± S.D. before and after H. pylori therapy was statistically significant in patients with successful decontamination (65 ± 48 × 109/L vs. 200 ± 140 × 109/L; p = 0.018). Lymphocyte counts at the diagnosis of H. pylori infected cases were significant higher than those of non-infected cases (1.58 ± 0.13 × 109