Are Platelet-Antibody Tests Worthwhile?

This issue of the Journal contains a report by Lehman et al. on a patient with autoimmune thrombocytopenia and lymphoreticular malignant disease, in whom state-of-the-art in vitro serologic methods were employed to characterize the abnormal immunoglobulin.1 Thirty-six years have passed since the first description of the participation of a circulating globulin in the pathogenesis of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) and some secondary thrombocytopenias (one patient had chronic lymphocytic leukemia); the techniques used at that time were especially crude.2 , 3 How far have we come in these 36 years? Numerous tests have been devised for the detection of platelet autoantibodies. The serology . . .