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H. Pylori and thrombocytopenia

Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2015 12:32 pm
by msreza16
Does anyone know if there if a co-relation between h. pylori infection and thrombocytopenia?

My platelet counts has been progressively dropping over the last 2 years. The last count was 106K (Normal lower limit is 150K). My count is always under the lower limit. My hematologist reckons it is related to h. pylori infection. So, he referred me to a gastroenterologist.

I was diagnosed with h. pylori about 8 months ago and was first treated with Nexium HP7 by my GP. Seven weeks after the treatment my platelet count went up to 178K. However, UBT confirms that the treatment did not eradicate the h. pylori bacteria.

So I went to the gastroenterologist that my hematologist referred me to. He treated with the quadruple therapy and then an endoscopy confirms still infected with h. pylori with intestinal metaplasia. My platelet count went down again to 148K.

Now I'm on the Salvage therapy. Don't know if this will cure me! If it doesn't, I don't know what else is left for me except frustration.

I believe a successful treatment plan depends on how experienced your gastroenterologist is. I don't think mine was a good one. He should have done the endoscopy first to find out the strain of the bacteria before putting me on those heavy antibiotics. I guess he was over-confident that the quadruple therapy will cure me. But he could have at least send the biopsy sample for culture when he did the endoscopy afterwards! Now I am on this heavy salvage therapy and due for another unnecessary endoscopy in December. Simply frustrating!

Re: H. Pylori and thrombocytopenia

Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2015 12:56 pm
by Helico_expert
Hi, i've read your other post in regards to your salvage therapy. I think your specialist knows what he is doing. I must say it is very rare to fail the quadruple therapy you mentioned. Nevertheless, next endoscopy in December, you may ask him to send your strain to a laboratory and have your strain cultured for antibiotic sensitivity testing.

In regards to your platelet, there are some reports about positive relationship between H. pylori and low platelet count. The mechanism is still poorly understood. However, there are reports saying that eradicating H. pylori may improve platelet count. So, let's hope your current treatment will do the trick.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2688577/

Re: H. Pylori and thrombocytopenia

Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 3:23 pm
by newhpyloridiag
msreza16 wrote:Does anyone know if there if a co-relation between h. pylori infection and thrombocytopenia?

My platelet counts has been progressively dropping over the last 2 years. The last count was 106K (Normal lower limit is 150K). My count is always under the lower limit. My hematologist reckons it is related to h. pylori infection. So, he referred me to a gastroenterologist.

I was diagnosed with h. pylori about 8 months ago and was first treated with Nexium HP7 by my GP. Seven weeks after the treatment my platelet count went up to 178K. However, UBT confirms that the treatment did not eradicate the h. pylori bacteria.

So I went to the gastroenterologist that my hematologist referred me to. He treated with the quadruple therapy and then an endoscopy confirms still infected with h. pylori with intestinal metaplasia. My platelet count went down again to 148K.

Now I'm on the Salvage therapy. Don't know if this will cure me! If it doesn't, I don't know what else is left for me except frustration.

I believe a successful treatment plan depends on how experienced your gastroenterologist is. I don't think mine was a good one. He should have done the endoscopy first to find out the strain of the bacteria before putting me on those heavy antibiotics. I guess he was over-confident that the quadruple therapy will cure me. But he could have at least send the biopsy sample for culture when he did the endoscopy afterwards! Now I am on this heavy salvage therapy and due for another unnecessary endoscopy in December. Simply frustrating!
There is some correlation, in my case it was about 30000. I had a platelet count of 110000 (below normal), I donno from when. When h-pylori hit, it went down to about 70000 and after the treatment completed it went back to 110000. I was refereed to a hematologist and he did a bunch of tests which came back negative and he monitored me for an year and the count remained same at 110000 and that's about it. In regards to platelet count, another factor that is important is MPV (Mean Platelet Volume). If MPV is high (which means platelets size is big, which mean they are younger) and platelet count is low, it means the production is good (your bone marrows is producing), which are getting destroyed by some autoimmune process or something else.

As a positive side affect, the 10 day regimen actually cured my bleeding gums (I guess it treated a periodontal disease), no bleeding gums from almost a year and half.

Any form of bacterial/viral infection can reduce your platelet count.

In regard to you, how are the other blood counts? WBC/RBC?