The diagnostics of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia in Italy and the possible impact of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia on it

What is it about?

We carried out a survey on anti-PF4 assays for HIT diagnosis in Italy. We found that VITT uprising during the anti-Sars-CoV-2 vaccination roll-out influenced the request for HIT diagnostics in Italian hospitals inducing a marked rise of use of the laboratory assays for anti-PFA/heparin antibodies with a concomitant trend to a decrease in the percentage of positive results. Our results highlight the importance of strict adherence to established evidence-based guidelines for HIT diagnosis of avoiding empiric and often unuseful anti-PF4 laboratory testing in patients with a low pre-test clinical probability

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