Immunological Studies in a Case of Gold Salt Induced Thrombocytopenia

A woman developed severe thrombocytopenia a few days after the 8th injection of sodium aurothiomalate. She was treated with BAL, prednisone and a fresh blood transfusion, and the platelet count came back to normal after about 2 weeks. At that time the bone marrow contained many megakaryocytes, and the platelet life span was nearly normal. These observations suggest that the thrombocytopenia was due to an immune mechanism, but in vitro techniques failed to detect lytic, agglutinating, complement binding, or radioactive aurothiomalate‐binding antibodies.