Profile of Thrombocytopenia in ICU Patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Eastern India

Authors

  • Subhro Jyoti Mukherjee Senior Resident (Medicine), MBBS, Doctor of Medicine (General Medicine), Department of General Medicine, College of Medicine and Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hospital. Kalyani, Nadia741235
  • Ramanuj Bhattacharya Senior Resident (Medicine), MBBS, DNB (General Medicine), Department of General Medicine, College of Medicine and Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Hospital, Kalyani, West Bengal 741235
  • Ashok Meshram Assistant Professor (Medicine), MD (General Medicine), DM (Clinical Hematology) Department of General Medicine, Command Hospital (EC), Alipore, Kolkata700027
  • Priyanka Mishra Professor (Pathology), MD (Pathology), DM (Hematopathology) Department of Pathology, Command Hospital (EC), Alipore, Kolkata700027
  • Suman Kumar Pramanik Professor (Medicine), MD (General Medicine), DM (Clinical Hematology) Department of General Medicine, Command Hospital (EC),Alipore, Kolkata700027

Abstract

Introduction: When severely ill patients are admitted to intensive care units (ICUs), thrombocytopenia— defined as a platelet count below 150,000/μL-occurs frequently. Depending on underlying conditions, drugs, and treatments, its frequency among ICU patients varies greatly, ranging from 8.3% to 67.6%. Aims: To study prevalence, likely aetiologies, pattern among different categories of patients and impact of thrombocytopenia on the 7 days mortality among the critically ill patients in an intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital in Eastern India. Materials & Methods: This study is a prospective observational study conducted in a single-center setup at Command Hospital (Eastern Command), Kolkata. The study period extends from 1st October 2022 to 31st March 2024, and a total of 150 consecutive patients admitted to the ICU will be included. Result: In our study, majority of the patients were male (64.7%) and most of the patients were from age group 61-80 years (46.7%). 79 patients (52.7%) were admitted with pre-existent thrombocytopenia and 43 patients (28.7%) had developed thrombocytopenia during their hospital stay. The platelet trajectory was found to be biphasic with initial thrombocytopenia having nadir at 4-5 days of admission. Thrombocytopenia was found to be associated with baseline liver and kidney dysfunction and along with development of sepsis and overt disseminated intravascular coagulation. Presence of thrombocytopenia was found to be significantly associated with mortality (33.6% vs 3.6%, among those with and without thrombocytopenia respectively). Thrombocytopenia was also found to be associated with requirement of vasopressors support, invasive ventilator support and requirement of dialysis (50.8%, 43.4% and 27.0% respectively in thrombocytopenia group versus 21.4%, 35.7% and 7.1% respectively in non-thrombocytopenia group). Conclusion: We concluded that thrombocytopenia is encountered frequently among critically ill patients of ICU. It is associated with sepsis and disseminated intravascular coagulation along with requirement of life- supports. It is also associated with higher 07-day mortality among critically ill patients.

Keywords:

Thrombocytopenia, ICU, Sepsis, Platelet count, Platelet trajectory, Mortality

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Published

2025-09-02
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Vol. 16 No. 9 (2025): Volume16,Issue9

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Articles