What are the effects and causes of low platelets in lupus patients?
Low platelets are usually due to antibodies and less commonly the result of drug side-effects. When the count is very low there is an increased risk of bruising and bleeding; fortunately this is a rare manifestation of lupus. Surprisingly there is another type of antibody that can reduce the platelet count (usually only mildly), so there is no bleeding but instead these antibodies can interfere with platelet function and this causes increased clotting, known as thrombosis. This is a painful condition, as not enough blood can get through a blood vessel containing a clot and this causes damage to that part of the body. This can occur, for example, in the calf (deep vein thrombosis), and the clot can spread from a leg vein through the circulation to the lungs (pulmonary embolism). The underlying cause of this thrombotic condition is known as antiphospholipid (or Hughes) syndrome, as there is a group of antibodies present which interferes with phospholipids in platelets and other cells and
