Doing research/Johns Hopkins grad student seeks patient data

Hello,
Are you a male with ITP and have hemorrhoids?
also
Have you had a spike in your platelet levels after antibiotic treatment?

If the answer is yes please post here.

My name is Paul Vickery, and I'm a medical scientist and graduate student at Johns Hopkins University. I'm doing an experiment to see if a certain bacteria can cause ITP.

Wishing everyone peace and health,

Paul Vickery MLS ASCP

I'm sorry, but what do hemorrhoids have to do with ITP?

I can tell you right now that antibiotics both raise counts and drop counts during infections. Depends on the person and the antibiotic. People also experience a rise or drop in counts from being sick so it's kind of hard to separate that out.

Thank you for sharing with me. Antibiotics causing a lowering of platelet levels is also significant to the bacteria I am studying. If you know what medicine you took that caused the platelets to fall please let me know.

Thank you again,

Paul Vickery

Paul,
First, are you familiar with the search facility available here whereby one can search the history of user posts for specific words? Be aware though that only the first 30 responses are returned - apparently because the feature is under temporary construction/improvement right now.
pdsa.org/discussion-group/search.html

Just off hand, I can't remember any specific person reporting improved platelet counts from an antibiotic. I think there is a possibility that those who have taken antibiotics to treat h.Pylori may have reported count spikes though. Not sure. A search on 'pylori' might yield something fruitful.

You know, there used to be a guy here that often trumpeted the drug 'Dapsone'. Perhaps you are familiar with it. His handle was 'Rob16'. As I understand it is an antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory. Here is one of his posts commenting on it in a contextual way.
pdsa.org/discussion-group/7-treatment-general/29145-dapsone-lyme-disease-itp-connection.html#54261
Here are some of his other posts that contain the word 'dapsone' in it.
pdsa.org/discussion-group/search.html?query=dapsone&searchuser=rob16&exactname=1&searchdate=all&order=inc&childforums=1

From my own studies, I question the understanding of how it works to treat ITP. I suspect it is not the antibiotic nature of it but rather some anti-inflammatory property which causes platelet counts to increase. Those that benefit from the drug seem to have an issue with inflammation. That the mere absence of inflammation can raise counts, and vice versa.

Hope this helps.

Amoxicillin cause my counts to drop twice years ago. I stayed away from that one for a while, but I've taken it since with no problem. At one point I took an antibiotic and my counts went up....not sure if it was coincidence or not. I can't remember which one it was (long time ago).

What is your reasoning for believing certain bacteria may cause ITP? I don't discount the possibility, but almost all of the current evidence in microbiota research in regard to autoimmune diseases leads towards viral triggers being more likely. The bacteria themselves clearly play a role in pathogenesis but it is currently a very chicken and egg question. Early studies in to microbiota transplant in Inflammatory Bowel Disease seems to indicate that the bacteria in the microbiota may be able to remediate some of the disease symptoms, but this does not imply that alterations to the bacteria are causative, or at least, not the root cause of autoimmune disease.

Based on research from the lab I am in, as well as many others, would lend credence to the idea that antibiotics deplete the microbiota. This depletion alters several inflammatory markers including Interferon Lambda. Loss of IFN-L seems to alter the response to viruses and pathogenic bacteria which could explain the alterations to platelet counts after IBD.

If ITP is directly caused by bacteria, I would be surprised as these bacteria would have to be out-colonizing the commensal bugs and be antibiotic resistant.

Personally I'd like to know why: "male" ITPer and "hemorrhoids" - what bacteria is being studied - and why the experiment is being done.

Thank you!

H Pylori is a well documented bacterial cause of ITP

That is true, but it often (not always, but often) responds to antibiotic treatment. My guess is they are specifically looking for ITP patients who have tested negative for H. pylori

Still, before answering any personal questions I would want to know:
"Personally I'd like to know why: "male" ITPer and "hemorrhoids" - what bacteria is being studied - and why the experiment is being done."

H-plyori isn't just in males that have hemorrhoids.

I'm just very skeptical - I, or anyone, can sign in and say I'm an infectious disease specialist [or whatever] working at the Mayo Clinic [or wherever] please answer the questions I've listed below, thank you very much.

Agree, Melinda, and the questions are far too broad to even answer.