The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7444 p336
24 March 2007

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Vancomycin thrombocytopenia

A link between exposure to vancomycin and the onset of thrombocytopenia accompanied by serious bleeding is reported in The New England Journal of Medicine (2007;356:904).

Although the authors say they are unable to estimate the frequency with which vancomycin causes immune thrombocytopenia they suggest that testing for drug-dependent antibodies can be helpful in identifying the cause of thrombocytopenia in patients treated with vancomycin.