DIOPATHIC thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP, also I known as primary immune thrombocytopenic purpura) is a hematologic disorder for which appropriate diagnostic and treatment strategies are uncertain. In 1994, the American Society of Hematology (ASH) established a panel to produce explicitly developed practice guidelines for the diagnosis and management of ITP. "Explicitly developed," evidencebased practice guidelines, which are being issued increasingly by medical specialty societies, combine a critical appraisal of scientific evidence with practice recommendations that state clearly to what extent the guidelines are based either on published scientific evidence or opinion (eg, clinical experience).I4 More details about the clinical practice guideline movement are provided elsewhere.'.'This report begins with a brief summary of the panel's recommendations, followed by a more detailed analysis of its methodology, the findings of the comprehensive literature review, and a full presentation of the recommendations. The report concludes with recommendations for future research. As explained later, the recommendations are based on the panel's opinion, derived from a systematic scoring methodology. (Only recommendations receiving scores of 1 .O to 3.0 or 7.0 to 9.0, as defined later in the text, are cited in this summary.) SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS Children Diagnosis

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