MD Ramon C. Henson
From the Smear to the Decision: Every Platelet Crisis, Recognized in Time This handbook builds platelet-directed clinical reasoning from the ground up, connecting megakaryopoiesis, platelet ultrastructure, and receptor-level activation and aggregation mechanisms to the decisions that define hematology practice - when a low count is artifact, when it is emergency, and when a rising count signals a clonal process rather than a reactive one. It moves systematically from the diagnostic approach to thrombocytopenia through immune, drug-induced, heparin-associated, and consumptive disease, into inherited platelet disorders, the thrombocytoses, antithrombotic pharmacology, and transfusion medicine, closing on the therapies now entering clinical trials. Written for hematology fellows and the hematologists, transfusion medicine specialists, and internists who manage platelet disorders daily. The Platelet Crisis Decision Compass runs through every chapter - forty pattern-recognition instances, each pairing a presentation with its most dangerous mimic and a stated Crisis Anchor, consolidated into a single cross-referenced Atlas forward and call-night use. Inside, You Will Learn How To • Resolve a spuriously low count before it changes management - smear-based recognition of platelet clumping and satellitism, with the citrate-correction workflow that separates artifact from true thrombocytopenia. • Localize a bleeding phenotype on aggregometry - the mirror-image tracings separating Glanzmann thrombasthenia from Bernard-Soulier syndrome, and the secondary-wave pattern that flags a storage pool disorder. • Sequence immune thrombocytopenia treatment - first-line corticosteroid and IVIG selection through the criteria signaling it is time to move to second-line therapy. • Score suspected heparin-induced thrombocytopenia and act on it - the 4Ts framework driving immediate non-heparin anticoagulation, not deferral pending confirmation. • Trigger same-day plasma exchange for thrombotic microangiopathy - PLASMIC scoring that starts treatment before ADAMTS13 results return. • Establish lifelong surveillance in inherited thrombocytopenia syndromes - RUNX1 and ANKRD26 predisposition patterns that change monitoring even when the count looks reassuring. • Risk-stratify essential thrombocythemia - JAK2, CALR, and MPL-directed diagnosis feeding an IPSET-thrombosis-based cytoreductive strategy. • Match reversal agent to anticoagulant and resolve transfusion refractoriness - andexanet alfa versus idarucizumab logic alongside the corrected count increment workup separating alloimmunization from consumption. Equip yourself to recognize every platelet crisis your patients will bring you - order the Handbook of Platelets today.
