Volume 70 Number 5 October 2003	back to contents

¹Fellow, Hematology/Oncology and ²Professor of Medicine and Pathology, Thrombosis and Hemostasis Section, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY.

Presently working at *Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY and **Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center Campus, Bronx, NY.

Address all correspondence to Jacob H. Rand, M.D., Professor of Pathology and Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Core Laboratory Office - North Pavilion 8, 111 East 210th Street, Bronx, NY 10467.

Accepted for publication April 2003.

ABSTRACT

The diagnoses of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) often remain questionable, forcing the clinician to make the difficult decision of initiating therapy based on symptomatology and clinical judgment and, sometimes, instinct. An increased awareness of characteristic symptoms and early diagnoses of TTP and HUS are of utmost importance, given the excellent results obtained with prompt plasma exchange therapy. Tremendous progress has been made in understanding TTP and HUS since TTP was first described more than 75 years ago at Mount Sinai. However, several questions are still not definitively answered. In this article, we will review background on both entities, and then describe the controversy in differentiating between them.

KEY WORDS

Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, hemolytic uremic syndrome.

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