Glanzmann Thrombasthenia—Platelet Disorders

Also called: Thrombocyte disorders

Platelets are little pieces of blood cells. Platelets help wounds heal and prevent bleeding by forming blood clots. Your bone marrow makes platelets. Problems can result from having too few or too many platelets, or from platelets that do not work properly.

If your blood has a low number of platelets, it is called thrombocytopenia. This can put you at risk for mild to serious bleeding. If your blood has too many platelets, you may have a higher risk of blood clots. With other platelet disorders, the platelets do not work as they should. For example, in von Willebrand Disease, the platelets cannot stick together or cannot attach to blood vessel walls. This can cause excessive bleeding.

Treatment of platelet disorders depends on the cause.

NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

• Bleeding time (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Congenital platelet function defects (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Glanzmann disease (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Partial thromboplastin time (PTT) (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Platelet aggregation test (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Primary thrombocythemia (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Purpura (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Thrombocytopenia (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Thromobocytopenia – drug-induced (Medical Encyclopedia)

Glanzmann thrombasthenia is a bleeding disorder that is characterized by prolonged or spontaneous bleeding starting from birth. People with Glanzmann thrombasthenia tend to bruise easily, have frequent nosebleeds (epistaxis), and may bleed from the gums. They may also develop red or purple spots on the skin caused by bleeding underneath the skin (petechiae) or swelling caused by bleeding within tissues (hematoma). Glanzmann thrombasthenia can also cause prolonged bleeding following injury, trauma, or surgery (including dental work). Women with this condition can have prolonged and sometimes abnormally heavy menstrual bleeding. Affected women also have an increased risk of excessive blood loss during pregnancy and childbirth.About a quarter of individuals with Glanzmann thrombasthenia have bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract, which often occurs later in life. Rarely, affected individuals have bleeding inside the skull (intracranial hemorrhage) or joints (hemarthrosis).The severity and frequency of the bleeding episodes in Glanzmann thrombasthenia can vary greatly among affected individuals, even in the same family. Spontaneous bleeding tends to become less frequent with age.