Intravenous immunoglobulin or high-dose methylprednisolone, with or without oral prednisone, for adults with untreated severe autoimmune thrombocytopenic purpura: a randomised, multicentre trial

The association between platelet autoantibody specificity and response to intravenous immunoglobulin G in the treatment of patients with immune thrombocytopenia

“…Our study, like previous prospective and retrospective studies evaluating the use of IVIG, did not show that any of the other patients' clinical features or ITP treatment history were helpful in predicting a response to IVIG. 1,[8][9][10] Despite the limitations of our study, our results are quite interesting and support the murine model findings by Webster et al that ITP mediated by anti-GPIbα may be less responsive to IVIG treatment. 6 If confirmed by other studies, platelet autoantibody specificity may become a useful predictor of IVIG response in the treatment of patients with ITP.…”

Effects of Late Administration of Immunoglobulin on Experimental Atherosclerosis in Apolipoprotein E-Deficient Mice

“…8,9 It is a safe preparation with no long-term side effects. The therapy was first demonstrated to be effective for an autoimmune disorder (idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura) 8 and since then, it has been established as effective in the treatment of Guillain-Barré syndrome, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, myasthenia gravis, dermatomyositis and Kawasaki's syndrome, and in the prevention of graft-vs-host disease in recipients of allogenic bone marrow transplants. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Benefits have been reported for many other autoimmune and systemic inflammatory conditions, but controlled trials are often lacking.…”

“…8,9 At present, atherosclerosis is considered to be the result of generalized inflammation associated with immune activation. [1][2][3] We have already reported that immunoglobulin administration, beginning simultaneously with development of the disease, suppressed the lesions in experimental atherosclerosis via the actions of the Fc portion.…”

The American Society of Hematology 2011 evidence-based practice guideline for immune thrombocytopenia

“…A large number of papers present data relevant to first-line treatment of ITP. 87,89,91,96,97,[99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109] If treatment is required for ITP, it should be tailored to the individual patient, taking into account the presence and severity of bleeding, the rapidity of desired platelet count rise, and possible side effects. We recommend longer courses of corticosteroids (eg, prednisone 1 mg/kg orally for 21 days then tapered off) over either shorter courses of corticosteroids (eg, dexamethasone 40 mg orally for 4 days) or IVIg because longer courses of corticosteroids are associated with a longer time to the loss of response in the only study that has compared short-course therapy (IVIg or intravenous corticosteroids on days 1-3 followed by placebo on days 4-21) with long-course therapy (IVIg or intravenous corticosteroids on days 1-3 followed by oral corticosteroid therapy on days 4-21).…”