Case Reports Transfusion Medicine 2022 Exercise 2: Immune-Mediated Platelet Refractoriness in Adult Patients

Authors

Mischa Li Covington, MD, PhD

Wen Lu, MD

Department of Pathology

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Boston, Massachusetts

Primary Audience: Pathologists and Clinical Scientists
Secondary Audience: Residents, Laboratory Technologist/Scientist (Includes all sub-specialty areas), Students, Pathologist Assistants,  Laboratory Directors and Educators

Upon completion of this activity, you will be able to:

·         differentiate non–immune-mediated from immune-mediated causes of platelet refractoriness;

·         explain how to work up suspected HLA-mediated platelet refractoriness;

·         summarize the principles behind an HLA-matching strategy versus an HLA-selecting strategy;

·         discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of using HLA-matched, HLA-selected, or crossmatched platelets;

·         apply strategies to increase the pool of compatible/least-incompatible products for patients with profound platelet transfusion refractoriness; and

·         discuss the challenges of providing special products for patients with platelet transfusion refractoriness who are transfusion-dependent.