Long-Term Effect of High-Dose Dexamethasone with or without Low-Dose Dexamethasone Maintenance in Untreated Immune Thrombocytopenia

BACKGROUND: To tackle the problems associated with high-dose dexamethasone (HD-DXM) in patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). AIM: To compare the efficacy of HD-DXM with or without low-dose dexamethasone maintenance in untreated ITP patients. RESULTS: Dexamethasone (40 mg/day) was given in 4-day pulses every 14 days for 3 cycles in 61 patients with ITP. Among them, 30 cases were given dexamethasone (0.035 mg/kg per day) for maintenance between pulsed HD-DXM and after 3 HD-DXM courses (HD-DXM-M group) and another 31 cases did not receive dexamethasone maintenance (HD-DXM-nM group). The control group comprised the patients who received prednisone (prednisone group). The following results were obtained: (1) at the end of the 3rd cycle, the overall response rate (ORR) was higher in the HD-DXM group than in the prednisone group; (2) the ORR of the HD-DXM group peaked after the 3rd cycle; (3) the ORR after each course was higher in the HD-DXM-M group than in the HD-DXM-nM group; (4) in the 12th month after HD-DXM discontinuation, the relapse rate of the HD-DXM-M group was lower than that of the other groups (prednisone and HD-DXM-nM). CONCLUSION: Treatment with 3 cycles of HD-DXM pulses with low-dose dexamethasone maintenance is an effective method for untreated ITP.