After 9 months a repeated ADAMTS13 was 25%, which raised a suspicion of the Upshaw–Schulman syndrome. This case report describes a 27 year old woman with a life-threatening ongoing thrombocytopenia after delivery caused by TTP. The ADAMTS13 level of 25% nine months after delivery is suspicious for the Upshaw–Schulman syndrome. This is congenital TTP caused by a mutation in the ADAMTS gene on chromosome 9q34 [5]. In these patients, pregnancy seems to induce thrombocytopenia in the second or third trimester, often followed

Selleckchem Compound Library by TTP [6]. This case describes a life-threatening thrombocytopenia of pregnancy and peripartum, which is often important to distinguish from milder and physiologic forms of thrombocytopenia. Important in thrombocytopenia of pregnancy is to establish the presence of TMA and in the case of TMA to establish the underlying disorder (Table 2). In this Adriamycin clinical trial case, the thrombocytopenia was noticed directly after delivery, but a complete evaluation was started on the second day which contributed to a delay in the diagnosis of TTP. Thus we recommend more aggressive evaluation of new onset peripartum thrombocytopenia. The postpartum presentation of

severe thrombocytopenia and Coombs-negative haemolytic anaemia was first attributed to an atypical HELLP syndrome. Because of the presence of schistocytes in the blood smear and an ADAMTS13 level of 11%, with a cut-off value of < 10%, TTP was discarded at first. A repeated ADAMTS13 revealed Thymidine kinase a value of 15%, by which no definite diagnosis of TTP could be made. Because of deteriorating platelets and lack of laboratory abnormalities improvement more than 72 h after delivery HELLP syndrome was considered

unlikely and treatment for TTP was initiated. Because of rapid clinical and laboratory improvement in the hours following plasma filtration, a diagnosis of TTP was made. TTP and HUS are rare entities and it is estimated that it occurs in < 1:100.000 pregnancies [7]. In a retrospective study between 1955 and 2006 by Martin and colleagues, 166 reports of pregnancy associated TTP were found in the literature [3]. Although TTP mostly presented in the second and early third trimester of the pregnancy (55.5%), in 21 of 166 cases (12.7%) the onset of TTP occurred postpartum. It is estimated that in the era before plasma infusions and plasma exchange maternal mortality was as high as 60% [3]. Nowadays the maternal mortality is 0–15%, which is mainly due to complications of plasma exchange therapy [8]. Furthermore, there is a difference of maternal outcome between patients already known with TTP, and patients who develop TTP for the first time during pregnancy, or in the postpartum period, because of delay in confirming the diagnosis and thus treatment [7]. Pregnancy induced TTP is not only associated with maternal death and morbidity, but also with perinatal loss (17%), perinatal mortality (454:1.000), and preterm delivery [3] and [7].