• Yuki Tsuji, Hideto Kawaratani, Koji Ishida, Daisuke Kaya, Takuya Kubo, Yukihisa Fujinaga, Yasuhiko Sawada, Hiroaki Takaya, Naotaka Shimozato, Kosuke Kaji, Tadashi Namisaki, Kei Moriya, Takemi Akahane, and Hitoshi Yoshiji.
• Third Department of Internal Medicine, Nara Medical University, Kashihara, Nara, Japan.
• Dig Dis. 2020 Jan 1; 38 (4): 329-334.

AimsThrombocytopenia is a common complication among patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). To increase platelet counts, lusutrombopag, a small-molecule, second-generation thrombopoietin receptor agonist, was developed in September 2015. Lusutrombopag is mainly used in patients with platelet counts <50,000/µL. However, its usefulness in patients with platelet counts ≥50,000/µL remains unknown. We studied the effectiveness of lusutrombopag administration in patients with platelet counts of ≥50,000/µL.MethodsWe evaluated 36 patients who received lusutrombopag for CLD. Changes in platelet counts were evaluated. A treatment response was defined as an increasing platelet count ≥20,000/µL from baseline after drug administration. The differences related to these changes between platelet counts ≥50,000 and <50,000/µL were evaluated.ResultsOf the patients, 25 had platelet counts ≥50,000/µL. The increase in platelet count and the date in which it reached a maximum did not significantly differ between the groups. The effectiveness of lusutrombopag did not significantly differ between the groups. In both groups, no adverse reaction was observed during lusutrombopag administration.ConclusionIn this study, we showed the effectiveness of lusutrombopag, which had no complications. This study is the first to report that the effectiveness of lusutrombopag was the same for patients with platelet counts ≥50,000/µL and <50,000/µL.© 2019 S. Karger AG, Basel.

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