Clinical effect of dexamethasone combined with cyclosporine in the treatment of immune thrombocytopenia in elderly patients

Objective: To investigate the short and long-term efficacy of high dose dexamethasone combined with cyclosporine in the treatment of immune thrombocytopenia(ITP) in elderly patients.Methods: Twenty-four elderly patients with ITP were randomly divided into the control group(12 cases treated with 40 mg/d of dexamethasone for 4 d) and observation group(12 cases treated with 40 mg/d of dexamethasone for 4 d combined with 3 mg·kg^-1·d^-1 of cyclosporine).The platelet levels and adverse reactions in two groups were observed after 1 week,2 weeks and 1 month of treatment.Results: The differences of the levels of platelet before,and after 7 d of treatment between two groups were not statistically significant(P>0.05).After 14 days and 1 month of treatment,the levels of platelet in observation group were significantly higher than that in control group(P<0.01),and the differences of the levels of platelet at different time-points between two groups were statistically significant(P<0.01).After 7 d,14 d and 1 month of treatment,the levels of platelet in two groups were significantly higher than that before treatment(P<0.01),and the level of platelet in control group after 14 d of treatment was significantly lower than that after 7 d of treatment(P<0.01).The difference of the adverse reaction between two groups was not statistically significant(P>0.05).Conclusions: The dexamethasone combined with cyclosporine can improve the short-term and long-term efficacy of elderly patients with ITP,and the adverse reaction of which is minute.