LymeNet Flash: Little Red Dots, ITP, and Babs

This is topic Little Red Dots, ITP, and Babs in forum Medical Questions at LymeNet Flash.

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Posted by Aniek (Member # 5374) on :

The thread on different types of red dots some of us had got me thinking. Years ago, a good friend was hospitalized after she noticed a number of little red dots all over her body. Her mom had also had the condition and, in her mom's case, it became very serious.

I just emailed her and she said the condition is called ITP and the red dots are burst capillaries caused by low platelet count. I went to a website about ITP, and a few people on their message board remember being bitten by a tick prior to the ITP.

Anybody know of ITP?

I've heard the red dots are a babesia symptom. The babesia supposedly lives in red blood cells. I'm wondering if some of us are ignoring a potentially dangerous symptom.

Posted by treepatrol (Member # 4117) on :

This is from my post on page 4 right now. http://www.pharma-lexicon.com/
petechiae:
Small red spots on the skin that usually indicate a low platelet count.

low platelet count:
An abnormally low platelet count. Normal platelet counts are 150,000-400,000 per cubic millimetre.

Those with low platelet counts may exhibit haematuria, haematemesis, easy bruising, bleeding gums, melena (blood in stools), prolonged menses or nosebleeds. Spontaneous intracranial haemorrhage can occur with platelet counts of 10-15,000 (or less).

Heres something else. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000535.htm
http://www.itppeople.com/aboutitp.htm
http://www.gamunex.com/web_docs/theitpfactsheet%2Epdf

Drug-induced thrombocytopenia

James N G******, MD

UpToDate performs a continuous review of over 330 journals and other resources. Updates are added as important new information is published. The literature review for version 12.3 is current through August 2004; this topic was last changed on February 10, 2003. The next version of UpToDate (13.1) will be released in February 2005.

The clinician is frequently faced with the problem of a patient presenting with a low platelet count. One important and reversible cause is drug toxicity. The pathogenesis and clinical management of patients with suspected drug-induced thrombocytopenia will be reviewed here with the exception of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, a disorder that is associated with a hypercoagulable state rather than bleeding. (See "Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia"). Also discussed elsewhere are related issues such as drug-induced syndromes which produce thrombocytopenia along with other cytopenias or organ involvement (eg, chemotherapy, aplastic anemia, and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura-hemolytic uremic syndrome) [1,2] and an overall approach to the patient with thrombocytopenia. (See "Approach to the patient with thrombocytopenia").

Theres more to artical here. http://patients.uptodate.com/topic.asp?file=platelet/4585

[This message has been edited by treepatrol (edited 18 February 2005).]

Posted by Aniek (Member # 5374) on :

Thanks Tree! (Is it ok to call you Tree, or should I stay with the whole name?)

I remembered something was posted, but couldn't find it.

Posted by hwlatin (Member # 4123) on :

ITP - idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura - is a serious disease. The platelets drop to extremely low levels. They get the red dots known as petechiae. It is an auto-immune disorder as well. It can cause strokes because as the platelet levels drop the tend to clump together which can cause a stroke. In addition, you could very easily bleed to death.

There is a sister disease called TTP - Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. This is even more dangerous, here the platelets drop and the red blood cells fragment causing strokes and seizures. This was the first major diagnosed disease I had.

I was in the hospital for 4 months receiving 30 pints of plasma for 10 hours a day every day, not a fun disease. My current doctors all believe now that my TTP was caused by the Lyme or co-infections.

Most of the people with eitherof these diseases suffer the same set of symptoms that we do. THe problem is that predisone is really the first line of defense for both disorders, which for a Lyme patient is very serious.

I have met 2 TTP and 8 ITP patients who later went on to test positive for Lyme. In my case my body was producing anti-bodies to platelets, just like it is now producing anti-bodies for several of my hormones.

These are auto-immune responses. Whether Lyme or the co-infection are responsible for all cases is not known, but when you have one auto-immune disorder the chances are pretty good that another one is just around the corner.

Posted by Lymied (Member # 6704) on :

I had/have babesia and had these little red dots mostly on my legs around bruises that would spontaneously appear without there being any reason to be bruising. I had my blood count numerous times over the 7 months I was searching for a diagnosis and my platelets always came back in a normal range...for what it is worth...

Posted by Corinne E (Member # 4670) on :

I have these little bright red raised dots, like a small mole, except that you pick/scrape them off and there is nothing below them under the skin or on the skin. But they always come back in the same spot. Have them on my upper stomach, mid tummy, neck, shoulders, upper arms. They start off very very small but if left alone grow to I guess about 1/8 inch across. I haven't been able to find a picture of them yet. Any ideas?

Corinne

Posted by caat (Member # 2321) on :

a lot of things can cause these, bart, babs and a bad systemic yeast infection are just a few possibilities.

I have these too, the small ones, the "mole" like ones and small bruising. I'm getting rid of a bad systemic yeast and mold infection right now and I'm hoping that's it and not bart or babs...

my platelets seem fine too.

Posted by Aniek (Member # 5374) on :

I'm getting my monthly blood test today, and a platelet count is included.

My LLMD told me that babesia lives in red blood cells. I can't help but think that would have something to do with this.

Caat and Corinne - the dots I'm talking about are not the raised mole like dots. I think people discussed those in the thread that treepatrol put a link to. These are not raised. It looks like somebody took a felt tip red pen and put a dot on me, with a circle of paler skin around the dot.

Posted by MammaLyme (Member # 1257) on :

My grandson was extremely anemic with his babesia and was on mephron and zith for over three years. He was 12 and in a gifted program. His grades fell and he was put under the special code at school. Eventually, he got well and is doing fine now. He turns 20 this year and is in his second year at college.
We thought he would never get well. Thank the Lord.

I have the small red shiny spots and I have the anti-cardio lipid antibody as my autoimmune disease from lyme. This is where your platets do stick together and can cause strokes and heart attacks. I take one baby aspirin a day.