Severe maternal thrombocytopenia and prenatal invasive procedures: still a grey zone

Abstract

Management of severe thrombocytopenia, particularly of ITP, in pregnancy is mainly based on expert consensus and clinical experience while there are no clear indications about the minimum platelet count requested for prenatal diagnosis invasive procedures. Since the lack of specific recommendations we reported our clinical management of a patient suffering from severe thrombocytopenia, undergoing amniocentesis. Due to the anecdotic possibility of maternal and fetal bleeding in case of severe thrombocytopenia, prophylaxis with IVIG or even corticosteroids could be considered as a safer strategy to prevent post-procedural adverse outcomes.

Keywords: amniocentesis; chorionic villus sampling (CVS); immune thrombocytopenia (ITP); prenatal diagnosis; thrombocytopenia.