Platelet receptor glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibition with eptifibatide in a patient with thrombocytopenia after treatment with abciximab

Clinical experience suggests that patients treated with the glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa inhibitor abciximab (ReoPro(R), Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, Indiana) may be at increased risk of thrombocytopenia, This case report details the successful use of the GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor eptifibatide (Integrihn(R), COR Therapeutics, South San Francisco, California) in a patient who developed acute thrombocytopenia (platelet count: 67,000/mm(3)) approximately 10 hours after initiation of abciximab therapy. Five hours after abciximab was discontinued, platelet count returned to normal (191,000/mm(3)) and eptifibatide was started because of persistent electrocardiographic evidence of ischemia, The patient underwent diagnostic catheterization during eptifibatide therapy, which was administered for approximately three days. Four days after the initial course of therapy with eptifibatide was discontinued, percutaneous revascularization with adjunct eptifibatide was performed. During both courses of eptifibatide therapy, platelet counts remained in the normal range (>100,000/mm(3)) and no adverse ischemic or bleeding events occurred.